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A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood

Pellicano, Elizabeth; Fatima, Unsa; Hall, Gabrielle; Heyworth, Melanie; Lawson, Wenn; Lilley, Rozanna; Mahony, Joanne; (2022) A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood. Nature Reviews Psychology , 1 pp. 624-639. 10.1038/s44159-022-00099-z. Green open access

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Abstract

There is little comprehensive research into autistic adulthood, and even less into the services and supports that are most likely to foster flourishing adult autistic lives. This limited research is partly because autism is largely conceived as a condition of childhood, but this focus of research has also resulted from the orthodox scientific approach to autism, which conceptualizes autistic experience almost entirely as a series of biologically derived functional deficits. Approaching autism in this way severely limits what is known about this neurodevelopmental difference, how research is conducted and the services and supports available. In this Review, we adopt an alternative research strategy: we apply Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach, which focuses on ten core elements of a thriving human life, to research on autistic adulthood. In doing so, we identify areas where autistic adults thrive and where they often struggle, and highlight issues to which researchers, clinicians and policymakers should respond. The resulting picture is far more complex than conventional accounts of autism imply. It also reveals the importance of engaging autistic adults directly in the research process to make progress towards genuinely knowing autism and supporting flourishing autistic lives.

Type: Article
Title: A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s44159-022-00099-z
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00099-z
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders, Psychology
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10155986
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