Exploring Correlations of Unemployment, Underemployment, and Well-Being Among Autistic Job Seekers by Race in the United States.
This survey flags unemployment and race as mood risks for autistic job seekers but offers no ABA-ready fix.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kaplan-Kahn et al. (2026) sent a one-time online survey to autistic adults who were looking for work.
They asked about job status, race, and how people felt about life.
What they found
The team says the data show links between not working, feeling down, and race.
No clear direction or size of effect is given.
How this fits with other research
Ferron et al. (2023) and Riebel et al. (2025) also used surveys and found that self-kindness can soften anxiety and shame in autistic adults.
Those studies point to a skill you can teach; A et al. only describe a problem.
Slowiak et al. (2022) asked BCBAs the same kind of questions and found that simple self-care cuts burnout.
Together the papers show: when life feels hard, action-oriented coping helps more than naming risk alone.
Why it matters
The survey reminds us that autistic clients may carry extra stress from job rejection and racism.
Pair your job-readiness programs with self-compassion or self-care lessons drawn from the neighbor studies.
You cannot change the job market in one session, but you can give clients tools to protect their mood while they search.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Maladaptive perfectionism among Asian Americans may represent a shared social construction socialized within an interdependent cultural script. The authors hypothesized that interdependence concerns and parental relations may explain elevated maladaptive perfectionism and associated depressive symptoms in a sample of 140 Asian American college students. Survey findings revealed that interdependence, maladaptive perfectionism, and parent-driven perfectionism were associated with depressive symptoms. Regression analyses revealed that interdependence moderated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms such that highly interdependent Asian American students appeared more vulnerable to depression when demonstrating perfectionistic tendencies. Parental support buffered subjects from distress associated with parent-driven perfectionism. Processes of heightened cultural vulnerability and sensitization to maladaptive perfectionism are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026 · doi:10.1037/1099-9809.14.2.92