Jim Dickinson examines new research on access at universities, and asks why improved attitudes toward disabled students have yet to translate into reliable, systemic support

Forty years ago, disability advocates abandoned the LGBTQ+ community in exchange for legal protections. Decades later, they are fighting a Trump administration rule to roll-back more safeguards for tr...

Background: Adults increasingly self-identify as autistic without a formal diagnosis, yet little research has systematically investigated (a) the unique charact...

Taking drug in pregnancy does not raise chances of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability, ‘gold standard’ review finds

At least one third of autistic people have limited or no speech. Most nonspeaking autistic people are never provided alternatives that would enable the full range of expression that speech allows, si...

As national organizations dedicated to advancing the well-being of autistic individuals and partners across the disability and public health sectors, we are deeply disappointed by the latest update to...

The science is clear. As the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, “Since 1998, independent researchers across seven countries have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies involving over 5.6 mill...

Background: Loneliness is a major public health concern, affecting individuals’ mental and physical health. Autistic adults self-report higher levels of loneliness compared with non-autistic adults, y...

Background: Autistic people experience worse mental health outcomes than non-autistic people. Masking (concealing autistic traits) is found to relate to poor mental health. Research shows that autistic people indicate relationships between masking and difficulties creating or maintaining a sense of identity. Personal identity is rarely studied within autism research. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the connection between identity formation difficulties (both social and personal) and its impact on poor mental health in autistic people. It examines levels of identity conflict and distress in autistic and non-autistic people and whether identity distress mediates and identity conflict moderates the relationship between masking and psychological distress. Method: Data were collected for autistic (n = 139) and non-autistic people (n = 133) using an online survey. Results: Autistic people were found to experience higher levels of identity distress, conflict, and psychological distress. Identity distress represents a full mediation of the relationship between masking and psychological distress in the autistic cohort, but a partial mediation in the non-autistic cohort. Identity conflict did not moderate any relationships within the model for either cohort. However, it did have a significant direct relationship with masking identity distress and psychological distress. Conclusions: These findings suggest that autistic people may experience worse mental health outcomes due to difficulties with cohesive identity formation. Additional research into the role of autism in identity development may identify other areas in which identity difficulties negatively impact autistic people, such as long-term planning and suicidality.

Podcast Episode · The Autism Podcast · 12/11/2025 · 1h 18m