Lifetime and perceived stress, social support, loneliness, and health in autistic adults.

Abstract

Objectives: Although the health consequences of life stress in the general population are well known, how different stressors occurring over the lifetime cause morbidity and mortality in autism is unclear, as are the factors that moderate and mediate these associations. The few studies that have compared autistic and non-autistic individuals have used instruments that yield few stress exposure indices and assess stressors occurring over short time periods. Method:To address these issues, we used the Stress and Adversity Inventory to assess lifetime stressor exposure and perceived stressor severity in 127 autistic and 104 non-autistic adults.Moderated mediation analysis examined associations between stressor exposure, physical and mental ill-health with respect to the hypothesised mediating role of stressor perception, and moderation effects of loneliness and social support.Results: Autistic adults experienced more lifetime stressors and generally perceived stressors as more severe. Greater perceived stressor severity was related to poorer physical and mental health, and to greater loneliness and lower social support for both groups. An additional post-hoc analysis of the association between diagnostic status and mental ill-health revealed that loneliness mediated the relation between being autistic and having poorer mental health. Conclusion:Autistic individuals experienced more lifetime stressors, and their impact on physical and mental health was mediated by perceived stressor severity. Moreover, loneliness and low social support were associated with greater negative impact of lifetime stress exposure on mental health.Interventions that reduce cognitive-perceptual stress appraisals, and that target loneliness and social support, may help reduce stress-related disease in autistic individuals.

Increased perceived stress is negatively associated with activities of daily living and subjective quality of life in younger, middle, and older autistic adults

“…These studies have shown autistic females report higher levels of stress in response to events involving sensory stimuli and personal contact, relative to autistic males, and older autistic adults report greater stress than their younger counterparts for all domains except exposure to sensory stimuli and personal contact (Gillott & Standen, 2007; McGillivray & Evert, 2014). Research has also examined lifetime exposure to major stressors and perceived severity of those stressors using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for adults (STRAIN; Slavich & Shields, 2018), showing autistic adults reported greater stress responsivity overall, and in particular greater severity of stress in response to stressors characterized by change, humiliation, and physical danger (Moseley et al, 2021).…”

Three Mental Health Symptoms of Frontline Medical Staff Associated With Occupational Stressors During the COVID-19 Peak Outbreak in China: The Mediation of Perceived Stress and the Moderation of Social Support

“…The stress-buffering hypothesis argues that the social support protects mental health through the indirect pathway of interacting with the stressors or moderating the effect ( Cohen and Wills, 1985 ). In other words, social support may exert a direct effect by reducing the severity with which stressors are perceived, but it can also act as a buffer against the deleterious effects of stressors perception, reducing the activity of pathways that harm health ( Cohen and Wills, 1985 ; Moseley et al, 2021 ). Based on this model, social support is a buffering factor in the development of psychopathology and adjustment difficulties following experiences of a stressful event(s) ( Praharso et al, 2017 ).…”

Perceived stress of individuals with disabilities in the United States during COVID-19.

“…For example, Bishop-Fitzpatrick et al (2018) found a significant inverse relationship between perceived stress and quality of life in a sample of adults with autism. Moseley et al (2021) found that adults with autism experienced greater perceived stress than individuals without autism and that the perceived severity of stressors was correlated with measures of both poorer physical and mental health, and less social support—all of which are determinants of quality of life. Scott and Havercamp (2014) found that perceived stress was related to poorer mental health outcomes for adults with intellectual disability in a national sample of over 10,600 individuals, and in a study of 119 individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), Senders et al (2014) found that perceived stress was significant related to both mental and physical quality of life measures.…”