Publications by authors named "Tamara Garfield"
Article Synopsis
- Most autism research targets those with formal diagnoses, neglecting the experiences of individuals who self-identify as autistic, especially in the queer and transgender community.
- A study involving 65 queer and transgender adults revealed that both diagnosed and self-identified individuals encounter obstacles in obtaining an autism diagnosis and often face invalidation related to their identity.
- The study suggests that researchers and advocates should include self-identified autistic individuals in autism research and services to better address their needs and experiences.
Introduction: The transition to young adulthood can be a turbulent life stage, and this is often magnified for autistic youth. Young adults frequently profess different goals and values than their parents. While there is some indication in autism research about how parents, and to a lesser extent, autistic young adults, feel about this transition, little research leverages dyadic interviews with both populations or has used this method with Black and/or low-income families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study explores the experiences and identities of nonbinary autistic people. The relationship between autistic and nonbinary identities has not been researched in detail. Few studies focus specifically on nonbinary autistic adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- This study analyzes the use of safety net programs among low-income children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using data from the 2021 National Survey of Children's Health.
- It finds minimal differences in material hardship between children with ASD and those with other special health care needs, but higher levels of hardship compared to children without special needs; however, the presence of ASD does not significantly influence safety net program usage.
- The paper calls for future research to explore how race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and the interaction of Medicaid with safety net programs affect access to benefits for children with ASD.
Introduction: Calls for improved measures of gender identity to understand the experience of transgender individuals have grown rapidly in the past 5 years. The need for methodological innovation in this topic area has particular importance for the autistic population since a higher co-occurrence of transgender identities among autistic people has been documented but is not well understood. We use a survey with questions that reflect standards in 2018 to demonstrate how binary conceptualizations of gender did not adequately capture gender identities of transgender autistic individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Coping can moderate the relationship between trauma exposure and trauma symptoms. There are many conceptualisations of coping in the general population, but limited research has considered how autistic individuals cope, despite their above-average rates of traumatic exposure.
Objectives: To describe the range of coping strategies autistic individuals use following traumatic events.
Article Synopsis
- - The study found that 40% of high school students with autism receiving special education participated in some form of work experience within a year, which is notably lower than their peers with and without disabilities.
- - While rates of paid work among students with autism were similar to those with intellectual disabilities, they were only half the rate of students without special education.
- - Factors influencing work experiences for youth with autism included being white, the involvement of parents in transition planning, and having functional skills like navigation; promoting early work experiences should be prioritized in disability employment policy.
U.S. policy interventions encourage earlier provision of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services to support students and youth with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the transition from school to work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFServices for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systems Perspective.
Curr Psychiatry Rep
February 2020
Purpose Of Review: We review original research about services for adults on the autism spectrum published from January 2013 through December 2018. The main aim is to characterize the topical and methodological aspects of research about services. We review research on services related to employment, living in the community, and social participation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommentary 2: Participatory Justice and Ethics in Autism Research.
J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics
December 2019
Objective: To describe the perspectives of young adults on the autism spectrum about how they seek and make friends and explore the diverse ways that some develop satisfying friendships despite social difficulties.
Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with 20 young adults on the autism spectrum about their lives after high school. Although interviews covered a broad range of topics related to transition, the subject of friendship came up frequently throughout the interviews.