Roadblocks to independence: exploring the roles of self-determination and anxiety on daily living skills in autistic transition-aged youth

TL;DR

This study explores how anxiety and self-determination affect daily living skills in autistic youth, finding that self-determination plays a key role.

Contribution

The study identifies self-determination as a novel key factor influencing daily living skills in autistic transition-aged youth.

Findings

Autistic traits significantly increase anxiety levels in autistic youth.

Self-determination positively affects all three daily living skills: financial management, self-care, and home care.

Cognitive ability is only directly linked to financial management.

Abstract

Autistic individuals tend to have lower daily living skills than age-matched peers, and lower skills than what would be predicted by cognitive ability. What is less known are the mechanisms contributing to this profile.

This project aimed to examine the influence of anxiety and self-determination on low daily living skills (financial management, self-care, and home care) among autistic youth. A partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was developed and tested with a sample of autistic transition-aged adolescents and adults (n = 79, ages 16 – 27, M age = 19.41).

Autistic traits were found to have a significant, positive direct effect on anxiety. The only significant direct paths to daily living skills were from self-determination and cognitive ability, with self-determination having positive direct effects on all three daily living skills and cognitive ability positively relating to financial management. The proposed indirect paths were not significant.

Self-determination may be a key mechanistic variable for promoting daily living skills in autistic youth, which could have implications for transition-focused supports.

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