Our ongoing projects.
Autism acceptance, camouflaging and mental health.
Recent research carried out in the UK suggests that experiencing a lack of autism acceptance may result in poorer mental health outcomes for autistic individuals. In this project, we want to investigate this idea in a more diverse set of autistic participants from across the globe (and not just the UK). We hope to compare the levels of autism acceptance, camouflaging, and mental health difficulties- and how these factors are related- in several different areas of the world.
Autism, alexithymia and sleep quality.
Previous research has found that alexithymia, the inability to identify and describe your own emotions, is related to reduced sleep quality in the general population. In this project, we aim to investigate whether this is the same for autistic individuals, and whether autistic traits play a role in the relationship. We hope that this will improve knowledge of sleep quality in the autistic population and lead to routes for improved quality of life.
Autism-related language preferences.
Members of the autism community – autistic people, their family and friends and broader support networks – often disagree over how to describe and talk about autism. In this project we plan to ask a diverse set of autistic individuals from across the globe about their language preferences to clear up this ambiguity. We hope that by investigating these language preferences, we can inform the general population about how best to speak about autism. To take part, go to https://tinyurl.com/y2xnsm4l