Service Use Among Transition-Age Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Sasson et al. (2022) read 28 studies about Black families who have teens and young adults with autism. They looked for what the research talked about and what it left out.

The team wanted to see if studies noticed family strengths like church life, neighbor help, and parent advocacy. They also checked if papers only listed problems or also pointed to solutions.

Most papers focused on what families lacked, not on what they already did well. Strengths such as faith, informal support, and caregiver grit were barely studied.

The review calls for programs that start with these strong points instead of starting with deficits.

Mae Simcoe et al. (2018) and McKenzie et al. (2015) showed Black caregivers often feel dismissed by doctors. Sasson et al. (2022) does not deny these barriers; it says we must also map the assets families use to survive those same barriers.

Sánchez-Luquez et al. (2025) found that family navigation helps parents get more services, but no study asked if navigation builds on spiritual or neighbor networks. Sasson et al. (2022) fills that gap by telling us to embed those natural supports into navigation plans.

Balser et al. (2026) extend the focus to all intersectionally minoritized caregivers of transition-age youth. They worry about future research gaps, while Sasson et al. (2022) supplies a concrete fix: start with Black family strengths and scale the idea to other groups.

If you coach caregivers or run community programs, begin sessions by asking what church, cousin, or neighbor already helps the family. Build goals around those existing roots instead of imposing outside fixes. This simple flip can boost engagement and trust from the very first meeting.