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The Relationship Between Stress and Social Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Without Intellectual Disability
Author(s) -
BishopFitzpatrick Lauren,
Mazefsky Carla A.,
Minshew Nancy J.,
Eack Shaun M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
autism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.656
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1939-3806
pISSN - 1939-3792
DOI - 10.1002/aur.1433
Subject(s) - autism spectrum disorder , psychology , autism , intellectual disability , distress , clinical psychology , high functioning autism , young adult , developmental psychology , coping (psychology) , pervasive developmental disorder , psychiatry
Adults with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) face substantial challenges accomplishing basic tasks associated with daily living, which are exacerbated by their broad and pervasive difficulties with social interactions. These challenges put people with ASD at increased risk for psychophysiological distress, which likely factors heavily into social functioning for adults with ASD , as suggested by a growing literature on stress in children that indicates that children with ASD have differential responses to stress than healthy children. We hypothesized that adults with ASD and without intellectual disability ( n = 38) would experience more stress than healthy volunteers ( n = 37) and that there would be an inverse relationship between stress and social functioning in individuals with ASD . Baseline, semi‐structured interview data from a randomized controlled trial of two treatments for adults with ASD were used to assess differences in stress between adults with ASD and healthy volunteers and to assess the relationship between stress response and social functioning in adults with ASD . Findings indicate that adults with ASD experience greater perceived and interviewer‐observed stress than healthy volunteers and that stress is significantly related to social functioning in adults with ASD . These findings highlight the role of stress in adult functioning and outcomes and suggest the need to develop and assess treatments designed to target stress and coping in adults with ASD . Autism Res 2015, 8: 164–173 . © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.