Participation in recreational activities buffers the impact of perceived stress on quality of life in adults with autism spectrum disorder.
Recreational activities—not social ones—buffer stress and boost quality of life for adults with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lauren and her team asked 60 adults with autism how much stress they felt and how often they joined in fun activities.
They also asked each adult to rate their own quality of life.
Then they used statistics to see if doing more activities protected life quality when stress was high.
What they found
Adults who joined more recreational activities kept a higher quality of life even when stress was high.
The type of activity mattered: solo or small-group fun worked, not big social events.
How this fits with other research
Isenhower et al. (2025) extends this finding by showing adults stay engaged longer when leisure tasks match their preferred mix of social, electronic, or movement parts.
Pickard et al. (2019) looks at the other end of the lifespan: group sports help autistic children’s social skills a little, but not their talking skills.
Lin et al. (2026) adds that in Taiwanese youth, speech problems and caregiver help—not sensory issues—decide who joins activities, hinting that adult supports may need to target communication and caregiver coaching too.
Rumball et al. (2021) warns that adults with autism face extra trauma and PTSD risk, so the stress-buffer from recreation could be even more vital than we thought.
Why it matters
If you serve autistic adults, add a quick leisure-interest checklist to intake. Ask what kinds of fun they like—solo gaming, walking, art—not just what they can do. Then link them to one low-cost option this week. A single new hobby can blunt daily stress and lift life quality more than extra therapy hours.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
As the number of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) grows, the need to identify modifiable correlates of positive outcomes and quality of life (QoL) gains in importance. Research indicates that perceived stress is significantly correlated with QoL in adults with ASD. Studies in the general population of individuals without disabilities indicate that greater participation in social and recreational activities may lessen the negative impact of perceived stress on well-being, and this association may also hold among adults with ASD. We hypothesized that: (1) perceived stress would be negatively associated with QoL; and (2) higher frequency of participation in social activities and recreational activities would moderate the relationship between perceived stress and QoL. We used data collected from 60 adults with ASD aged 24-55 and their mothers to address our hypotheses. Findings indicate that adults with ASD with higher perceived stress are likely to have poorer QoL. Furthermore, greater participation in recreational activities buffers the impact of perceived stress on QoL, but no buffering effect was observed for participation in social activities. These findings suggest that interventions and services that provide supports and opportunities for participation in recreational activities may help adults with ASD manage their stress and lead to better QoL. Autism Res 2017, 10: 973-982. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1709