Exploring Identity Importance for Autistic Adults and Associations with Disclosure Experiences: A Brief Report.

Abstract

A strong autistic identity can help to support mental well-being, reduce anxiety and depression, increase self-esteem, and strengthen a shared community for autistic people. Autistic people are regularly faced with a decision to disclose their autistic identity to others and report a range of experiences after disclosure. The purpose of this brief report was to examine the association between identity and disclosure decisions in a sample of autistic adults to gather preliminary evidence justifying future research. Specifically, we were interested in learning more about how autistic identity is associated with one's approach to disclosure, while also exploring associations with other identities such as ethnic, gender, sexual, and religious identity. Participants (N = 111) completed an online questionnaire about their intersecting identities and their approach to disclosure. The research team that conducted this study was composed of both autistic and nonautistic researchers. Results demonstrated that participants who felt their autistic identity and sexual identity were highly important also reported frequent disclosure of being autistic. Religious, gender, and ethnic identity were not associated with one's disclosure decisions or their disclosure outcomes. Overall, the results of this study emphasize the link between autistic and sexual identities and autism disclosure, but more research in this space is needed to better support the wider autism community.