Logo image
Back
Increased perceived stress is negatively associated with activities of daily living and subjective quality of life in younger, middle, and older autistic adults
Journal article   Open access

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

Goldie A. McQuaid, Colin H. Weiss, Alex Job Said, Kevin A. Pelphrey, Nancy Raitano Lee and Gregory L. Wallace
Autism research, v 15(8), pp 1535-1549
Aug 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2779
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2779View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

activities of daily living adulthood autism perceived stress subjective quality of life
Few studies have examined self‐reported perceived stress in autistic adults. Existing studies have included relatively small, predominantly male samples and have not included older autistic adults. Using a large autistic sample (N = 713), enriched for individuals designated female at birth (59.3%), and spanning younger, middle, and older adulthood, we examined perceived stress and its associations with independence in activities of daily living and subjective quality of life (QoL). Perceived stress for autistic adults designated male or female at birth was compared to their same birth‐sex counterparts in a general population sample. In addition, within the autistic sample, effects of sex designated at birth, age, and their interaction were examined. Regression modeling examined associations between perceived stress and independence in activities of daily living and domains of subjective QoL in autistic adults, after controlling for age, sex designated at birth, and household income. Autistic adults reported significantly greater perceived stress than a general population comparison sample. Relative to autistic adults designated male at birth, those designated female at birth demonstrated significantly elevated perceived stress. Perceived stress contributed significantly to all regression models, with greater perceived stress associated with less independence in activities of daily living, and poorer subjective QoL across all domains—Physical, Psychological, Social, Environment, and Autism‐related QoL. Findings are contextualized within the literature documenting that autistic individuals experience elevated underemployment and unemployment, heightened rates of adverse life events, and increased exposure to minority stress. Lay Summary This study looked at self‐reported perceived stress in a large sample of autistic adults. Autistic adults reported more perceived stress than non‐autistic adults. Autistic individuals designated female at birth reported higher stress than autistic individuals designated male at birth. In autistic adults, greater perceived stress is related to less independence in activities of daily living and poorer subjective quality of life.

Metrics

7 Record Views
36 citations in Web of Science
38 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Behavioral Sciences
Psychology, Developmental
Logo image