Community Perspectives on Psychological Assessment Reports for Autistic Young Adults.

Purpose: Clinicians rarely solicit community feedback on psychological assessment reports. This study addresses this knowledge gap to: (1) improve the usefulness of reports for patients and families, (2) increase access to needed services, and (3) make reports accessible for autistic people and their families.

Methods: An autistic researcher and a non-autistic researcher jointly conducted qualitative interviews with autistic young adults, caregivers, and a service provider.

Measurement invariance of the PROMIS emotional distress and subjective well-being domains among autistic and General Population adolescents.

Purpose: Quality of life (QoL) is identified as a clinical and research priority by the autistic community. Researchers have the responsibility to ensure that instruments used to measure QoL do so reliably and accurately among autistic participants.

Methods: Our study evaluated measurement invariance of Emotional Distress (Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Psychological Stress) and Subjective Well-Being (Life Satisfaction, Positive Affect, and Meaning & Purpose) scales of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) among groups of autistic (N=140, n per scale=132-140) and general population (N=1,224, n per scale=406-411) teenagers (14-17 years).

Measurement matters: A commentary on the state of the science on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in autism research.

High quality science relies upon psychometrically valid and reliable measurement, yet very few Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) have been developed or thoroughly validated for use with autistic individuals. The present commentary summarizes the current state of autism PROM science, based on discussion at the Special Interest Group (SIG) at the 2022 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting and collective expertise of the authors. First, we identify current issues in autism PROM research including content and construct operationalization, informant-structure, measure accessibility, and measure validation and generalization.

Combating stigma in autism research through centering autistic voices: a co-interview guide for qualitative research.

As autism has gained increased attention in the past few decades, autistic advocates have adopted the phrase "Nothing about us without us," illustrating the idea that autistic people should be centered in all conversations regarding autism. However, in a large portion of autism research, autistic people are still not meaningfully engaged throughout the research process, leading to continued stigma in research through biased methods. Thus, stigma about autism influences not only the content of autism research, but the ways in which neurotypical people conduct research alongside (or without) autistic people, ultimately resulting in less valid conclusions or research that actively harms the autistic community.