■向青年期的过渡可能是一个动荡的生活阶段,对于自闭症青年来说,这通常会被放大。年轻人经常自称与父母不同的目标和价值观。虽然自闭症研究表明父母是如何,在较小程度上,自闭症的年轻人,感受这种转变,很少有研究利用对这两种人群的二元访谈,或者对黑人和/或低收入家庭使用这种方法。
■我们对生活在一起的自闭症年轻人和他们的父母进行了四组二元访谈。
■我们确定了两个群体都认为对过渡很重要的三个关键主题:独立性,结构化过渡,和人际关系。然而,我们发现,小组如何概念化这些主题是不同的,并揭示了目标和价值观的差异。父母更倾向于长期规范的实现观点,而年轻人则谈到了目前对他们有意义的事情。
■这项工作对自闭症研究如何概念化向年轻成年的过渡以及我们如何为该人群创造更好的社会机会具有影响。
■为什么这是一个重要的问题?:自闭症成年人面临工作和教育困难的风险,这可能会导致他们感到疏远或不满足。大多数关于自闭症患者成年的研究都是基于拥有更多文化和财政资源的白人,而不是问自闭症患者自己或他们的家人。需要进行研究以改善这些研究不足和服务不足的群体的过渡结果。这项研究的目的是什么?:这项研究探讨了自闭症青年和他们的父母如何思考和经历从城市到成年的过渡,资源匮乏的学区。研究人员做了什么?:研究人员采访了四位父母和四位自闭症青年。三个家庭是黑人,一个家庭是白人,来自一个低收入家庭。所有自闭症青年都接受过特殊教育服务,需要过渡到成年的支持,并且在学习前1到6年完成了高中学业。年轻人与母亲住在一起,并在日常工作中得到他们的支持。我们采访了父母,然后采访了年轻人。在某些情况下,青年加入父母的面试或父母加入青年的面试,以帮助记住信息或给出答案。研究结果如何?:研究人员确定了三个主题。首先,父母和年轻人对独立的看法不同。父母更注重工作和经济独立。年轻人更多地关注工作的社会方面,并在购物等日常活动中具有独立性。第二个主题是,青年和父母以不同的方式对待正在进行的结构化支持。年轻人报告了一系列服务的积极经历,但没有像父母那样讨论持续支持的必要性。第三,青年强调社会关系和通过共同利益与同龄人联系的机会的重要性。这些发现对已经知道的内容有什么补充?:我们了解到,关于过渡的标准问题可能并不能反映出自闭症青年及其父母对成年的看法。采访来自黑人和低收入城市学区的家庭帮助我们了解这些群体如何经历和思考向成年的过渡,即使他们没有使用这些身份作为他们如何看待年轻成年的逻辑。这表明,父母和青年的观点在与自闭症青年过渡有关的研究中通常没有很好地代表的群体中有所不同。这项研究的潜在弱点是什么?:这项研究只包括少数年轻人和父母。这些结果并不代表来自城市学区的所有黑人自闭症青年或低收入自闭症青年。与服务联系较少的家庭可能不太可能听说或参与这项研究。这些发现将如何帮助现在或将来的自闭症成年人:这些发现可以为更好的访谈方法和研究的发展提供信息,以满足进入成年的各种自闭症青年的需求。这项工作可以改善过渡支持。父母,青春,支持提供商,研究人员可能会对成年有不同的看法。改善的支持可以帮助围绕青年和他们的家庭目标建立相互理解和协调。
UNASSIGNED: The
transition to young adulthood can be a turbulent life stage, and this is often magnified for autistic youth. Young adults frequently profess different goals and values than their parents. While there is some indication in autism research about how parents, and to a lesser extent, autistic young adults, feel about this transition, little research leverages dyadic interviews with both populations or has used this method with Black and/or low-income families.
UNASSIGNED: We conducted four sets of dyadic interviews with autistic young adults and their parents who live together.
UNASSIGNED: We identified three key themes that both groups found important to the
transition: independence, structured
transition, and interpersonal relationships. However, we found that how the groups conceptualized these themes were divergent and revealed differences in goals and values. Parents were more oriented toward long-term normative views of fulfillment, whereas young adults spoke about what was meaningful to them currently.
UNASSIGNED: This work has implications for changes to how autism research will conceptualize the transition to young adulthood and how we can create better social opportunities for this population.
UNASSIGNED: Why is this an important issue?: Autistic adults are at risk for difficulties getting work and education, which can lead to them feeling alienated or unfulfilled. Most research on autistic people becoming adults is based on White people with more cultural and financial resources and does not ask autistic people themselves or their families with them. Research is needed to improve transition outcomes for these underresearched and underserved groups.What was the purpose of this study?: This study explored how autistic youth and their parents thought about and experienced the transition to adulthood out of an urban, low-resourced school district.What did the researchers do?: Researchers interviewed four parents and four autistic youth. Three families were Black, and one family was White and from a low-income household. All autistic youth had received special education services, needed support to
transition to adulthood, and had finished high school 1 to 6 years before the study. The young adults lived with their mothers and received support from them for daily tasks. We interviewed the parents and then the youth. In some cases, youths joined parents\' interviews or parents joined youths\' interviews to provide help with remembering information or giving answers.What were the results of the study?: Researchers identified three themes. First, parents and youth thought about independence differently. Parents focused more on work and financial independence. Youth focused more on social aspects of work and having independence in daily activities such as shopping. The second theme was that youth and parents approached ongoing structured supports differently. Youth reported positive experiences with a range of services but did not discuss the need for ongoing supports like their parents did. Third, youth emphasized the importance of social relationships and opportunities to connect with peers through shared interests.What do these findings add to what was already known?: We learned that standard questions about transition may not reflect how autistic youth and their parents think about becoming an adult. Interviewing families coming out of a predominantly Black and low-income urban school district helped us to understand how these groups experience and think about the transition to adulthood, even though they did not use these identities as a logic for how they thought about young adulthood. This suggests that parent and youth perspectives differ in groups that are not usually well represented in research studies related to transition for autistic youth.What are potential weaknesses in the study?: This study only included a small number of youth and parents. These results do not represent all Black autistic youth or low-income autistic youth coming from urban school districts. Families who are less connected to services may have been less likely to hear about or take part in the study.How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: These findings could inform the development of better interviewing approaches and research to address the needs of diverse autistic youth entering adulthood. This work could improve
transition support. Parents, youth, support providers, and researchers may think about adulthood differently. Improved support could help build mutual understanding and coordination around youths\' and their families\' goals.