skip to main content
Goldsmiths - University of London
  • Staff & students
  • Search
  • Main menu
 
Main menu

Primary

  • Home
  • Course finder
  • Study with us
  • Departments
  • Research
  • Services for Business
  • For the local community
  • Alumni and friends
  • News
  • Events
  • About us
Staff & students

Staff + students

  • Students
  • Library
  • Timetable
  • Learn.gold - VLE
  • Email - Outlook
  • IT support
  • Staff directory
  • Goldmine - staff intranet
  • Graduate School - PGR students
  • Teaching and Learning Innovation Centre
  • Events admin
In this section

Breadcrumb navigation

  • About us
    • Contact
    • Find us
    • Working at Goldsmiths
    • About Goldsmiths
    • Our misson, values and strategy
    • Governance
    • Our history
    • Student and graduate profiles
    • Senior Management Team
    • Community
    • Academic Partnerships
    • Open Book
    • Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art
    • Goldsmiths Global
    • Goldsmiths Press
    • Term dates
  • News
  • Social group vital to quality of life for older autistic people
Open social sharing
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Whatsapp

Social group vital to quality of life for older autistic people

Psychology

Article

Written bySarah Cox
Published on 1 Apr 2022

Social support is an important contributor to quality of life among middle-aged and older autistic adults, a demographic often overlooked in the application of social interventions, new research from Goldsmiths, University of London suggests.

An online study by Dr Rebecca Charlton (Goldsmith University of London) and Dr Gregory Wallace (The George Washington University) asked nearly 400 autistic adults without co-occurring intellectual disability in the United States, aged between 40 and 83, about depression and anxiety symptoms; quality of life (physical, psychological, social, environmental, and autism-specific) and the different types of social support they experience.

Questions on social support explored both quantity and quality of social interactions, and allowed participants to report both formal and informal support mechanisms such as the presence of family and friends, personal relationships, more casual social interactions (e.g., outside the workplace), or organised practical support. 

As subjective quality of life is based on an individual’s perception, self-reporting by participants was considered the most appropriate and reliable data collection method by the research team.

Participants also provided information on their age, race, ethnicity, sex assigned at birth, and presence of physical health conditions, as many of these factors are known to have a significant impact on quality of life. 

On average, women who completed the survey reported their quality of life to be much lower than men, a pattern often seen in research involving neurotypical adults too, which previous studies indicates may be related to income.

There was little difference in quality of life levels reported for people within three age categories (40-49, 50-59, 60+), which differs from most research with non-autistic adults. Prior research has suggested that non-autistic older adults may have better quality of life compared to middle-aged adults, although in later old age quality of life has been shown to be reduced, possibly related to declines in health.

Social support was significantly associated with each aspect of quality of life, even after accounting for demographic, physical health and mental health factors.

In keeping with studies in both younger autistic adults and non-autistic adults across adulthood, mental health factors such as presence of anxiety and depression symptoms were also associated with quality of life. While not explored as part of the current study, prior research has found higher levels of anxiety and depression among autistic people than in the general population.

Research was conducted in the United States while lead author Dr Rebecca Charlton was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at The George Washington University, Washington, DC, in 2021.

Dr Charlton, Reader in Psychology at Goldsmiths, said: “To our knowledge this is the first study to examine the impact of social support on quality of life among middle-aged and older autistic people, with prior studies typically focusing more on younger adults and children. Our pool of participants included a large number of autistic people assigned female at birth, which is a specifically understudied demographic. 

“Just as greater interpersonal social support and practical support can have positive impacts on quality of life for autistic young adults, our results show that different aspects of social support are really important for middle and older aged autistic people. It’s clear that interventions bolstering different forms and types of support could really benefit older autistic people.”

Social Support and Links to Quality of Life Among Middle-Aged and Older Autistic Adults by Rebecca Charlton (Goldsmiths), Goldie A. McQuaid (George Mason University), and Gregory L. Wallace (The George Washington University) was published in the journal Autism.

Our world renowned experts

Dr Rebecca Charlton

Rebecca is an expert in cognitive ageing, studying age-related changes in brain and how they influence cognition and social-cognition.

  • About us
  • Accessibility statement
  • Contact us
  • Cookie use
  • Find us
  • Copyright and disclaimer
  • Jobs
  • Modern slavery statement
Admin login
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
© Goldsmiths, University of London Back to top