A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood

TY - JOUR

T1 - A capabilities approach to understanding and supporting autistic adulthood

AU - Pellicano, Elizabeth

AU - Fatima, Unsa

AU - Hall, Gabrielle

AU - Heyworth, Melanie

AU - Lawson, Wenn

AU - Lilley, Rozanna

AU - Mahoney, Joanne

AU - Stears, Marc

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT190100077

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141414448&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s44159-022-00099-z

DO - 10.1038/s44159-022-00099-z

M3 - Article

C2 - 36090460

SN - 2731-0574

VL - 1

SP - 624

EP - 639

JO - Nature Reviews Psychology

JF - Nature Reviews Psychology

IS - 11

ER -