The role of loneliness as a mediator between autism features and mental health among autistic young adults.
Loneliness carries autism traits into anxiety and depression, so target social connection first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Redquest et al. (2021) asked 69 autistic young adults to fill out online surveys. The surveys measured autism traits, number of friends, loneliness, social anxiety, and depression.
The team used statistics to see if loneliness explains why more autism traits link to worse mental health.
What they found
Loneliness rose when autism traits were stronger and friend circles were smaller. That loneliness, not the traits themselves, drove most of the social anxiety and depression scores.
In short, feeling alone carries the emotional weight.
How this fits with other research
The result extends Mazurek (2014), which first showed loneliness ties to poorer well-being in autistic adults. K et al. move the field forward by proving loneliness is the middle step between traits and mood.
Lasgaard et al. (2010) saw the same loneliness spike in adolescent boys, so the pattern now spans from teens to young adults.
Bitsika et al. (2020) seems to disagree; they found sensory avoiding, not loneliness, mediates anxiety in boys. The studies differ in age and mediator, so both can be true: sensory issues matter in kids, while loneliness matters in young adults.
Why it matters
If loneliness is the main engine, your treatment plan should fuel social connection. Pair social-skills groups with real-world meet-ups like gaming clubs or college interest tables. Track loneliness as a vital sign, not just anxiety or depression scores.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one peer-matching activity to this week’s plan and rate loneliness before and after.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic adults commonly experience mental health concerns including social anxiety and depression, which can have negative effects on their quality of life. It is not completely clear, however, why rates of mental health concerns are so high. Some evidence suggests that social connectedness might play a key role. The goal of this study was to explore links between loneliness, mental health concerns, autism features, and social contact among autistic adults and test whether the links between mental health with autism features and social contact can be explained by loneliness. Researchers in this study collected data using questionnaires completed by 69 autistic young adults. Autistic adults who reported more autism features also reported more social and family loneliness, higher levels of social anxiety and depression, and fewer initiated social contacts. In addition, adults with more social contact initiations were likely to report lower levels of social and family loneliness and social anxiety but not depression. Results showed that the link from social engagement and autism features to social anxiety and depression symptoms could be mostly explained by loneliness. The results of this study expand previous findings by illustrating one factor (loneliness) that might be responsible for the high rates of mental health concerns among adults on the autism spectrum. These findings highlight the importance of studying factors related to mental health concerns among autistic adults and ways to best support social connectedness for the mental well-being of autistic young adults.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361320967789