Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, SE14 6NW, London, UK.
School of Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, SE10 9LS, London, UK.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Dec;53(12):4731-4743. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05710-z. Epub 2022 Sep 9.
Unemployment and underemployment have consistently been shown to be higher in autistic adults relative to non-autistic adults. This may be due, in part, to a lack of workplace accommodations being made for autistic people. One factor that may contribute to employment inequalities in autistic people is differences in attitudes towards interpersonal touch. This study acts as a preliminary investigation into whether employed autistic and non-autistic participants differ in their attitudes towards touch in the workplace, and in their loneliness and wellbeing. The current dataset was drawn from a larger online survey (the Touch Test) designed to explore attitudes and experiences towards touch. We found that employed autistic participants had more negative attitudes to general, social and workplace touch relative to non-autistic participants. Autistic participants also experienced greater loneliness and reduced wellbeing. Attachment-related anxiety was the only significant predictor of wellbeing in employed autistic adults. However, attachment-related anxiety, general attitudes to touch and the role of touch in the workplace predicted wellbeing in employed non-autistic adults. With regards to loneliness, general attitudes to touch and the role of touch in the workplace predicted loneliness in autistic participants. We also replicated the finding that a greater proportion of autistic participants were unemployed relative to non-autistic participants. Collectively, this research highlights the importance of considering touch in research investigating employment, and its impact on loneliness and wellbeing, in autistic participants.
失业和就业不足在自闭症成年人中相对非自闭症成年人一直表现得更高。这可能部分归因于为自闭症患者提供的工作场所适应性不足。导致自闭症患者就业不平等的一个因素可能是对人际触摸的态度存在差异。这项研究初步探讨了就业的自闭症和非自闭症参与者在工作场所对触摸的态度、孤独感和幸福感方面是否存在差异。当前数据集取自一项更大的在线调查（触摸测试），旨在探索对触摸的态度和体验。我们发现，与非自闭症参与者相比，就业的自闭症参与者对一般、社交和工作场所触摸的态度更为消极。自闭症参与者也经历了更大的孤独感和降低的幸福感。与依恋相关的焦虑是就业自闭症成年人幸福感的唯一显著预测因素。然而，与依恋相关的焦虑、对触摸的一般态度和触摸在工作场所中的作用预测了就业非自闭症成年人的幸福感。关于孤独感，对触摸的一般态度和触摸在工作场所中的作用预测了自闭症参与者的孤独感。我们还复制了这样的发现，即与非自闭症参与者相比，自闭症参与者中有更大比例处于失业状态。总的来说，这项研究强调了在研究自闭症参与者的就业及其对孤独感和幸福感的影响时，考虑触摸的重要性。
