Although women’s participation in the workforce has steadily grown in recent decades and their representation in senior leadership positions has risen, much of the research continues to focus on explaining the barriers that prevents their upward advancement. In...
Beyond Survival Defining and Measuring Thriving in Autistic Women
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by core features such as impairments in communication and reciprocal social interactions (American PsychiatricbAssociation, 2013). The prevalence of ASD in the UK is approximately
700,000, with women constituting about one-third of this figure (O’Nions et al., 2017). Unique behaviours of autistic women, such as camouflaging and internalisation of problems, can complicate identifying support requirements (Hull et al., 2017; Sedgewick et al., 2019). Compared to neurotypical individuals, this population experiences poorer quality of life and higher rates of mental illness (Lai et al., 2019). Despite growing awareness of the challenges faced by autistic women, there remains a critical gap in exploring the extent to which they are thriving or experiencing positive outcomes. Human thriving, defined as the simultaneous experience of personal development and success (Brown et al., 2017), remains underexplored in this population. Developing a tailored thriving scale may support a strengths-based approach for health professionals to better address the unique needs of autistic women.