Inter-relationships between trait resilience, coping strategies, and mental health outcomes in autistic adults.
Resilient autistic adults cope by solving problems instead of blaming themselves, leading to less depression and anxiety.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Howell et al. (2021) asked autistic adults to fill out online surveys. The surveys measured trait resilience, coping styles, and mental health.
The team used statistics to see if resilient people chose different coping strategies. They also checked if those strategies linked to lower depression and anxiety.
What they found
Adults who scored high on resilience used more problem-solving and less self-blame. These engagement strategies predicted lower depression and anxiety scores.
Resilience did not erase stress, but it steered people toward healthier coping. Less self-blame acted as the key bridge between resilience and better mood.
How this fits with other research
Greenlee et al. (2024) extends this work to children. They found younger autistic kids can bounce back faster than older ones, hinting that age shapes how resilience works.
Rigles (2017) seems to contradict the adult findings. In kids, adverse childhood events hurt health yet did not lower resilience scores. The difference is method: Bethany measured resilience as a fixed trait, while Melanie modeled it as a coping driver.
Rieffe et al. (2011) also appears to clash. They report that positive coping fails to buffer depression in autistic tweens. Again, age matters; child strategies may not yet match the adult pattern where problem-solving clearly helps.
Why it matters
You can teach self-blame reduction and problem-solving steps in adult groups. Brief role-plays that swap "I always mess up" for "What can I fix next time?" echo the resilient style linked to lower anxiety. Track mood before and after to see if these small shifts work for your clients.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Resilience has been depicted as a key characteristic in the promotion of mental health in the face of stress and adversity. Despite high levels of stress encountered in the autistic population, resilience studies remain scarce. Using data from an Australian longitudinal adult study, this study explored the inter-relationships between trait resilience, coping, and mental health in a sample of autistic adults (N = 78). In particular, we examined the relationship between resilience and use of coping strategies, and the potential mediating role of coping strategies in the relationship between resilience and mental health outcomes. Our findings suggested that increased use of engagement coping (e.g., problem-solving, positive appraisal) and decreased use of disengagement coping (e.g., self-blame, being in denial) strategies were associated with higher levels of resilience. Further, mediation analysis results suggest that disengagement coping mediated the associations between resilience and all three mental health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, and well-being), while engagement coping strategies mediated the relationship between resilience and well-being only. Our results illustrate that coping strategies may be an important mechanism in explaining the resilience-mental health relationship in autistic adults, highlighting the importance of considering stress-related constructs together (i.e., trait resilience and coping) when addressing support and intervention options for mental health difficulties in the autistic adult population. LAY SUMMARY: This research explored how resilience and coping strategies influence the mental health and well-being of autistic adults. We found that resilient autistic adults used more engagement coping strategies, less disengagement coping strategies, and reported better mental health and well-being. Considering stress-related factors together (i.e., resilience and coping) offers a novel perspective to mental health difficulties in autistic adults and may be a vital step in the development of support options in this population.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2021 · doi:10.1002/aur.2564