A new survey of 306 autistic individuals residing in eight countries found that participants from Japan and Belgium experienced the lowest levels of societal acceptance.
The study participants were from the USA, UK, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Belgium. While autistic people living in Canada, the UK, and South Africa reported slightly higher levels of feeling accepted, across all countries, only 23.5% of the participants reported that society accepted them as an autistic person.
“Autism acceptance can be defined as an individual feeling accepted or appreciated as an autistic person, with autism positively recognized and accepted by others and the self as an integral part of that individual,” the researchers explained.
“Throughout life, autistic people experience a higher risk of psychiatric and mental health disorders and elevated risks of premature mortality by nearly two decades compared to their non-autistic peers,” they wrote in the study. Depression and anxiety are the most common psychiatric co-morbidities for autistic adults, with prevalence rates reaching as high as 47% and 54%, respectively.
“There are many factors that could contribute to elevated mental health difficulties in autism. For example, since the prevalence of alexithymia (a subclinical condition characterized by difficulties identifying, expressing, and differentiating emotions) is higher in the autistic [49.93%] than the non-autistic population (4.89%),” they noted.
Another major factor, they highlighted, is that autistic individuals belong to a marginalized minority group and face “minority stressors” which include everyday discrimination and internalized stigma.
“The majority of autistic individuals in the UK feel that society does not accept [43%] or only sometimes accepts [48%] them as an autistic person. Despite this, until recently, research had not directly examined autistic people’s experiences of autism acceptance and how this relates to mental health difficulties,” they added.
Autistic individuals are frequently forced to camouflage their autistic traits to avoid being rejected or discriminated against. Also known as “camouflaging” it is defined as “the use of strategies by autistic people to minimize the visibility of their autism in social situations.”
For example, autistic individuals manage social situations by learning how to use eye contact or develop scripts to help them navigate social interactions. They also deliberately suppress stimming behaviors that help them self-regulate their emotions and bodies in overwhelming environments with loud noises and harsh lights. Stimming behaviors are repetitive movements like hand flapping, rocking back and forth while standing or sitting, pacing around, and/or jumping.
While most autistic people camouflage their traits, it is far more common among autistic women and those higher in autistic traits. “A burgeoning literature suggests that camouflaging may be a risk factor for depression and anxiety in autism irrespective of gender. Those who experience more social stressors (such as a lack of autism acceptance) are more likely to camouflage their autistic traits, which in turn results in higher levels of anxiety and depression,” the researchers highlighted in their study.
In a press release, the lead author of the study, Connor Keating, of the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology, said: “These findings underscore the crucial need to combat the stigma surrounding autism and reduce the pressure on autistic individuals to conceal their identity.”
The study was published in PLoS One on March 20, 2024.
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