重新审视学习年龄与自闭症和成人结果之间的关联

作者：

Florence YN Leung, Punit Shah , David Mason and Lucy A Livingston

摘要：

It was recently reported that learning one is autistic earlier in life is associated with greater quality of life and well-being in university students. In a pre-registered extension of this work, we addressed several limitations of this study by (a) recruiting a larger sample of more diverse ages and education levels, (b) distinguishing between learning about and receiving an autism diagnosis, (c) accounting for additional confounding variables, and (d) studying different quality of life dimensions. Autistic adults (N = 300) reported when they first learned they were autistic, as well as when they actually received an autism diagnosis, and provided detailed socio-demographic information. Participants also completed measures of their autistic traits, as well as well-being and quality of life across multiple domains. In contrast to recent research, we found the age participants first learned they were autistic did not significantly and uniquely predict their quality of life and well-being. Rather, having more autistic traits was the strongest predictor of poorer quality of life and well-being, while other socio-demographic factors were also relevant. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and improving outcomes in autistic adults and call for higher quality open science on this important topic.

最近有研究报道，学习一个人在生活中更早出现自闭症与大学生更高的生活质量和幸福感有关。在这项工作的预注册扩展中，我们通过( a )招募年龄和教育水平更多样化的更大样本，( b )区分学习自闭症和接受自闭症诊断，( c )考虑额外的混杂变量，以及( d )研究不同的生活质量维度来解决本研究的一些局限性。自闭症成年人( N = 300)报告了当他们第一次得知他们是自闭症患者时，以及他们实际接受自闭症诊断时，并提供了详细的社会人口学信息。参与者还完成了他们的自闭特质，以及幸福感和质量的测量。