Autism “Vulnerability And Mental Health Issues” Study

Take part in an Autistica funded survey about vulnerability and mental health issues in autism

Back in January Autistica announced that they had funded a new study on autism and vulnerability to mental health problems at the University of Cambridge’s autism research centre. This research is joint funded by Autistica and the Autism Research Trust.

Since then, the research team have been busy holding meetings with experts including adults with autism and parents of children with autism to help design a survey about vulnerability, mental health and wellbeing in autism. These meetings identified important topics to include in the survey and ensured that the questions are relevant to the community.

The survey is designed to be completed online and is completely anonymous. It includes a series of closed ended questions about life experiences in a range of settings including, school, work and relationships, and mental health issues. There is also space in the survey for participants to expand further on their own individual life experiences, mental health and wellbeing.

The survey is now online and the research team are looking for 1,000 autistic adults and 1,000 parents of children with autism to complete the questionnaires. There is one version of the survey for adults (18+) to fill in about their own experiences and another version for parents of children (aged 4-17) to fill in about their child’s experiences.