Abstract

Lack of mutual understanding between autistic and neurotypical individuals contributes to the marginalization of the autistic community. This study aimed to investigate similarities in reactivity to environmental and social pressures between autistic and neurotypical adults in order to facility empathy between the communities. Participants were 328 young adults aged 18-26 years old. Twenty-eight young adults (14 female) reported a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 300 young adults (150 female) comprised a complimentary group of neurotypical individuals. Participants completed multiple standardized tests to measure autistic trait expression and an original survey that measured their reactivity to eight scenarios that ranged from low to high social and environmental demands. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to calculate between-group differences within each scenario and across scenarios. Through multiple regression, the research team evaluated predictive factors of reactivity, using intolerance of uncertainty (IU), sensory processing, anxiety, and autistic traits as independent variables that demonstrated multicollinearity. Results demonstrate significant differences between groups' reactivity scores for within and across scenario comparisons. The data also shows multiple non-significant comparisons between groups for within and across scenario comparisons. Additionally, data finds that the morphology of both groups' general trend of reactivity to each scenario is very similar for all reactivity types. Finally, main findings reveal that intolerance of uncertainty and sensory processing were the two greatest predictive factors of total reactivity, regardless of autism diagnosis. Therefore, results suggest that autistic individuals experience greater degrees of reactivity as compared to neurotypical peers, but autistic and neurotypical individuals demonstrate similar patterns of reactivity to environmental and social pressures. As both autistic and neurotypical individuals understand that both groups experience similar reactivities to pressure but in different contexts, and therefore map their experiences onto their neurotypical or autistic counterparts' experiences, communities can build greater empathy between these two populations, leading to more neuro-diverse affirming practices.\

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2024-06-10

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13695

Keywords

autism, double empathy problem, cognitive environments, reactivity

Language

english

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