Leisure Participation of Autistic Adults: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Feasibility Study.
A quick daily text survey gets 90 percent completion from autistic adults and shows what they really do for fun.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Song et al. (2023) asked autistic adults to answer a short survey on their phone every day for one month.
The survey asked what leisure activities they did that day.
Researchers wanted to know if people would keep answering and if the questions felt easy to use.
What they found
People filled out the survey on 27 of the 30 days. That is 90 percent.
Most said the daily ping was simple and did not bother them.
The phone method worked for tracking real-life leisure in autistic adults.
How this fits with other research
Schuwerk et al. (2019) used the same phone-ping method. They also saw high reply rates while tracking social moments in autism.
Morrison et al. (2017) tested a mental-health app with depressed clients. Like Wei, they used daily phone prompts and found people stuck with it.
Kuenzel et al. (2021) used a one-time online survey. Their reply rate was lower, showing that short daily taps beat long forms.
Why it matters
You can add a daily phone check to your adult autism cases. One question about free-time choices gives you real-world data without extra visits. Try it next month: send a single evening text and graph the answers to show progress.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic adults participate less and express lower satisfaction in leisure activities than nonautistic adults, although literature is limited. The multifaceted nature of leisure participation makes it challenging to measure, with most measures being retrospective. Ecological momentary assessments (EMA) can reduce recall bias. This pilot study assessed the feasibility and acceptability of EMA among autistic adults. Participants (N = 40) were recruited via email and online. After completing a baseline interview, participants were asked to complete a once-daily survey for 30 days, in which they received survey links through a text messaging smartphone app. Surveys asked participants to report whether they participated in any leisure activities during the day, their level of enjoyment, with whom they interacted, and where they participated. The EMA appeared feasible in this sample, as participants completed the daily survey on average 27.05 (SD = 3.92) days. Regarding acceptability, most agreed that survey timing was convenient, that it was easy to enter responses and answer questions daily, and that they had enough response time. Overall, this study supports the use of EMA methodology among autistic adults. Future research should follow and improve upon these EMA data collection practices to examine daily behavior and well-being among autistic adults.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-128.4.319