Subjective wellbeing of autistic adolescents and young adults: A cross sectional study.
Autistic teens and young adults feel more daily distress than peers, so brief mood checks belong in every ABA plan.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ridgway et al. (2024) asked autistic and non-autistic teens and young adults how they felt about life.
They used a short survey that measures happiness, worry, and overall life satisfaction.
The team compared the two groups to see if autism status changed the scores.
What they found
The autistic group scored lower on total wellbeing and higher on negative feelings.
Surprisingly, both groups reported the same level of positive feelings.
The gap shows up in everyday mood, not just in clinic visits.
How this fits with other research
Tetreault et al. (2025) filmed the same age group during a friendly chat. Autistic young adults showed fewer happy faces, matching the low wellbeing scores here.
Park et al. (2019) saw the same pattern in youth already seeking therapy. Their depression, anxiety, and life problems were as severe as patients whose main diagnosis was a mood disorder.
Green et al. (2020) looks like a contradiction. During early COVID lockdowns, autistic youth actually reported less anxiety and depression. The difference is timing: lockdown removed stressful social demands, while Kathryn’s study captured ordinary life.
Why it matters
Low wellbeing is common in autistic teens and young adults, even when they say they still feel moments of joy. You can add a quick mood scale to your intake or progress review. If scores are low, teach coping skills, schedule pleasant events, or refer for mental-health support before problem behavior escalates.
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Join Free →Hand your client a three-question mood scale at the start of the session and use the score to pick reinforcers or coping tools for the day.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Subjective wellbeing (SWB) represents an individual's perception of wellness that is supported by homeostatic mechanisms. These mechanisms are proposed to be maintained by low negative affect and high positive affect, although less is known about these mechanisms and SWB in autism. The current cross-sectional study aimed to compare patterns of positive affect, negative affect (Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale), and SWB (Personal Wellbeing Index-School Children) between autistic (n = 53) and non-autistic (n = 49) individuals aged 10-22 years (Mage = 13.97, SD = 3.13). Between-group t-tests revealed that compared with same-age peers, autistic participants scored lower SWB overall (p < 0.001). In both groups average SWB scores fell into the higher range, however, autistic participants were three-times more likely to fall below this range when compared to non-autistic participants. Negative affect had a higher intercept in the autistic sample, but no difference in slopes were observed. A hierarchical multiple regression revealed that diagnosis, positive affect, and negative affect significantly predicted SWB in our sample. Between-group t-tests found no significant difference in positive affect or negative affect across age between the autistic and non-autistic samples. In autistic participants, positive affect increased across age as SWB decreased, whilst negative affect remained stable, a pattern inconsistent with homeostatic SWB. The current study is overall consistent with the homeostatic explanation for SWB within autism; however, we identified potential differences between autistic and non-autistic participants in the contribution of positive affect and negative affect to homeostatic protect mood across development.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3139