The Role of Emotion Regulation on Co-occurring Psychopathology in Emerging Adults with ASD.

Hutchins et al. (2020) asked emerging adults with autism about the ways they handle strong feelings.

All participants also had anxiety or depression. No treatment was given; the team just watched and wrote down the strategies each person used.

Adults who had both autism and mood problems leaned hard on 'involuntary' emotion tricks like shutting down or exploding.

They did not reach for planned, flexible steps such as deep breath or re-thinking the event.

Cai et al. (2018) warned that most autism-emotion work uses only checklists and ignores real-life flexibility; S et al. answer that call by showing exactly which mal-adaptive styles show up.

Baker et al. (2025) studied the same age band and found that poor emotion regulation predicts both anxiety and depression, while stiff thinking adds extra depression risk. S et al. line up with that picture but zoom in on the 'how'—the involuntary style.

Leung et al. (2014) saw emotion dysregulation linked to repetitive behaviors in kids; S et al. move the lens forward to young adults and link the same broad trouble to specific, un-planned regulation habits.

If your client is 18-25, autistic, and anxious or depressed, expect them to freeze, melt down, or ruminate rather than use taught coping tools. Build lessons on spotting early body cues and swapping in one planned step—like labeling the feeling or asking for help—before the involuntary wave hits. Track that single replacement; it may chip away at both mood and autism stress.