Autistic adults experience high rates of metal health difficulties and face significant barriers to accessing appropriate mental health care. Empirical research and recent professional guidelines emphasise the importance of modifying standard mental health interventions to best meet the needs of autistic adults. This systematic review explored…

Autistic adults experience disproportionate rates of co-occurring mental health problems. Psychotherapy has been recognized as an appropriate treatment approach, but evidence is limited. Researchers used a qualitative research paradigm to explore the experiences of mental health providers who provide psychotherapy to autistic adults. The Enhanced…

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated depression, anxiety, and executive function (EF) difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF skills have been positively associated with mental health outcomes. Here, we probed the psychosocial impacts of pandemic responses in children with and without ASD by relating pre-pandemic EF…

Long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic individuals and their families are recently emerging. This study investigated these effects in 40 mother-child dyads by measuring the behavioral problems of autistic individuals (via Aberrant Behavior Checklist) and their mothers' anxiety levels (via Beck Anxiety Inventory) during the…

Data from the National Survey of Children's Health 2016-2020 was used to examine the association between physical activity and anxiety and depression among autistic youth, non-autistic youth with ADHD, and non-autistic non-ADHD youth. There was a significant negative association between physical activity and anxiety among all groups. Reduction in…

Autistic adults experience disparities in physical health and health care access. A major barrier to addressing these disparities is a lack of federal funding for research on this topic. In seeking funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we discovered nodes that contribute to structural discrimination in physical health--related…

Purpose: Internalizing conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and difficulties with developing and maintaining friendships are common among autistic children and adolescents. Participation in extracurricular activities may buffer against these challenges as they provide naturalistic opportunities to bring peers with shared interests and…

The present study investigated the relation between autistic traits and gender minority stress and the relative importance of autistic traits and gender minority stress in predicting mental health outcomes in gender minority adults. An online survey was completed by 90 transgender women, 72 transgender men, 48 non-binary individuals assigned male…

Purpose: Previous cross-sectional research suggests self-compassion may mediate associations between autistic traits and mental health in autistic and non-autistic adults. However, no research to date has examined these relationships longitudinally. In this study, we used a cross-lagged panel analysis to examine correlations over time between…

Purpose: Autistic camouflaging is a collection of strategies used to hide autistic characteristics. It can have serious consequences on autistic people's mental health and needs to be addressed and measured in clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the French adaptation of the Camouflaging…

Mothers of autistic children often report poor mental health outcomes. One established risk factor for these outcomes is the child having a medical home. This study examined possible mediating variables (coping, social support) in this relationship in 988 mothers of autistic children from the 2017/2018 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH).…

Autistic adults commonly experience anxiety and worry, although knowledge on how worry presents and the content, extent, and experiences among autistic adults is limited. A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore the presentation and experiences of worry in autistic and non-autistic adults. Quantitative surveys were used to…

Caregivers of children with neurodiverse needs are known to experience challenges and hardship due to the increased needs of the child and the lack of support available. This study aimed to explore the support needs and well-being of caregivers of children with neurodiverse needs in Australia. Sixty-six caregivers participated in an online survey…

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained the resources of the world's healthcare systems. Most individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) experience significant mental health issues and face substantial barriers in accessing appropriate supports which have been exacerbated during the pandemic. It is unknown the extent to which COVID-19…

Although poor health has been reported in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), most studies excluded fathers and focused on mental health. We combined 2016-2019 data from the National Surveys of Children's Health to determine child and parent characteristics that predict poor mental and physical health in fathers (n = 818) and…