Coping-resilience profiles and experiences of stress in autistic adults.
Low-resilience autistic adults feel more global stress even when daily hassles stay the same, so target resilience plus coping together.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked autistic adults to fill out three short surveys. One measured coping styles. One measured resilience. One measured stress.
They used cluster math to sort people into groups. Each group shared a similar pattern of coping and resilience.
The goal was to see if some profiles feel more day-to-day stress than others.
What they found
Four clear profiles popped out. Two groups had low resilience. Two had high resilience.
Adults in the low-resilience groups said life feels more stressful overall. Yet daily hassles like traffic or spilled coffee were the same for everyone.
In short, resilience level, not coping style, best predicted how stressed people felt.
How this fits with other research
Zaidman-Zait et al. (2018) did a similar cluster study, but with parents of preschoolers. They also found that fewer family resources meant higher parent stress. The pattern looks the same across ages: less support, more strain.
Clifford et al. (2013) showed that parents who keep going to support groups report better coping. Melanie et al. now show coping alone is not enough; resilience must be boosted too.
Kaneko et al. (2020) linked autistic adults’ self-construal to well-being. The new study adds that resilience profiles give a clearer road map for where to intervene.
Why it matters
You can’t fix stress by teaching one coping skill. You need to build resilience at the same time. Screen for low-resilience profiles in your adult clients. Pair coping training with resilience builders like social connection, values work, or problem-solving rehearsal. A quick survey combo can show you who needs both arms of support.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Emerging studies allude to high stress in autistic adults. Considering the detrimental impact of stress on health outcomes, examining individual resources which may influence the extent to which stress is experienced (e.g., coping and resilience) is vital. Using a person-focused approach, this study aimed to identify coping-resilience profiles, and examine their relations to general perceived stress and daily hassles in a sample of autistic adults (N = 86; aged 19-74 years). Cluster analysis identified four coping-resilience profiles (i.e., high cope/ low resilience, low cope/ high resilience, engage cope/ high resilience, and disengage cope/ low resilience). The high cope/ low resilience and disengage cope/ low resilience groups had significantly higher general perceived stress than the remaining groups. No significant group differences were noted in relation to daily hassles. Jointly addressing coping and resilience may be beneficial on the perceived stress experienced in autistic adults. The use of coping-resilience profiles may also allow for the personalization of stress management and support options in the autistic adult population.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s12160-008-9016-0