Blagrave Arkansas Josephine, Colombo-Dougovito Andrew M, Healy Sean
Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Chico, Chico, California, USA.
Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.
Autism Adulthood. 2021 Jun 1;3(2):179-186. doi: 10.1089/aut.2020.0055. Epub 2021 Jun 7.
Autistic adults engage in lower levels of physical activity (PA) than their nonautistic peers, and over 60% do not meet national guidelines for PA. In addition, autistic adults face myriad barriers to PA participation that can make accessing activities challenging. To support the inclusion of autistic adults in PA, this study sought to explore first-hand recommendations for PA participation from autistic adults' perspective.
We interviewed 23 autistic adults aged 18 to 75 years about their PA experiences across their lifespan, including querying the participants' recommendations for supporting autistic adults in PA. A qualitative descriptive design with a constructivist lens guided the thematic analysis.
The analysis resulted in two overarching themes: (1) ; and (2) . Each theme includes participant-provided recommendations to guide professionals in the field of PA.
The autistic adult voice, long absent from conversations about PA, is a valuable and needed addition to understand how to improve PA experiences for this population. Recommendations from this study include (1) listening to the perspectives and insight of autistic adults, (2) consideration of sensory stimulus when planning for PA participation, and (3) encouraging and providing social supports for PA participation.
Autistic adults have many health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and obesity. Physical activity can improve these health concerns. Yet, professionals lack knowledge about how to provide optimal physical activity experiences for autistic individuals. Very little research has engaged autistic adults to directly ask their recommendations about their own physical activity needs. This study wanted recommendations from autistic adults on how to make physical activity more accessible and enjoyable. By doing this, the authors hope to increase the voices of autistic adults in physical activity research. The researchers asked 23 autistic adults for their recommendations on how to improve physical activity experiences. Participants' responses were grouped into two categories: (1) and (2) . The first theme highlights the social supports that many autistic adults feel they need to be successful. Supports include individuals within the close social circles of the autistic adults, such as parents, friends, and other close people. They can also include professionals, such as teachers or exercise trainers. The second theme highlights the need to address the sensory sensitivities of the individual before activity can take place; if an environment or activity is not "sensory friendly" or is not accommodating, then autistic adults are less likely to engage. Autistic adults face many barriers to physical activity participation. These findings offer first-hand accounts by autistic adults about how to improve their physical activity experiences. These results also offer ideas on how to increase physical activity engagement for autistic individuals. Other research has focused on improving physical activity in those who are autistic, but this research is rarely from the perspective of the autistic individual. This study is one of a very small number of studies that has done this and is the first to ask autistic adults to give recommendations for physical activity participation. This study only interviewed autistic adults who prefer to communicate verbally, and so the study sample is not representative of all autistic adults. Many participants in the sample were from the United States, and autistic adults in other countries may have different opinions about physical activity participation. Finally, the researchers may have recruited individuals with an interest in physical activity-autistic adults who are not interested or dislike physical activity may have different recommendations. This study will help professionals provide more appropriate physical activity experiences to autistic adults. Also, this research could help practitioners and researcher make physical activity spaces more welcoming and enjoyable for autistic adults.
与非自闭症同龄人相比，自闭症成年人的身体活动（PA）水平较低，超过60%的人未达到国家PA指南的要求。此外，自闭症成年人在参与PA时面临众多障碍，这使得参与活动具有挑战性。为了支持自闭症成年人参与PA，本研究旨在从自闭症成年人的角度探索关于PA参与的第一手建议。
我们采访了23名年龄在18至75岁之间的自闭症成年人，了解他们一生中的PA经历，包括询问参与者关于支持自闭症成年人参与PA的建议。采用具有建构主义视角的定性描述设计指导主题分析。
分析得出两个总体主题：（1） ；（2） 。每个主题都包括参与者提供的建议，以指导PA领域的专业人员。
在关于PA的讨论中长期缺席的自闭症成年人的声音，对于理解如何改善该人群的PA体验而言，是一项有价值且必要的补充。本研究的建议包括：（1）倾听自闭症成年人的观点和见解；（2）在规划PA参与时考虑感官刺激；（3）鼓励并为PA参与提供社会支持。
自闭症成年人存在许多健康问题，如焦虑、抑郁和肥胖。身体活动可以改善这些健康问题。然而，专业人员缺乏关于如何为自闭症个体提供最佳身体活动体验的知识。很少有研究让自闭症成年人直接提出关于他们自身身体活动需求的建议。本研究希望获取自闭症成年人关于如何使身体活动更易参与且更有趣的建议。通过这样做，作者希望增加自闭症成年人在身体活动研究中的声音。研究人员询问了23名自闭症成年人关于如何改善身体活动体验的建议。参与者的回答分为两类：（1） ；（2） 。第一个主题强调许多自闭症成年人认为他们需要获得社会支持才能取得成功。支持包括自闭症成年人亲密社交圈子中的个人，如父母、朋友和其他亲近的人。也可以包括专业人员，如教师或健身教练。第二个主题强调在活动能够开展之前需要解决个体的感官敏感性问题；如果环境或活动不“对感官友好”或不包容，那么自闭症成年人参与的可能性就较小。自闭症成年人在参与身体活动方面面临许多障碍。这些发现提供了自闭症成年人关于如何改善他们身体活动体验的第一手叙述。这些结果也为如何提高自闭症个体的身体活动参与度提供了思路。其他研究专注于改善自闭症患者的身体活动，但这项研究很少从自闭症个体的角度进行。本研究是极少数这样做的研究之一，并且是第一个要求自闭症成年人给出身体活动参与建议的研究。本研究仅采访了更喜欢通过言语交流的自闭症成年人，因此研究样本并不代表所有自闭症成年人。样本中的许多参与者来自美国，其他国家的自闭症成年人可能对身体活动参与有不同的看法。最后，研究人员可能招募了对身体活动感兴趣的个体——对身体活动不感兴趣或不喜欢身体活动的自闭症成年人可能会有不同的建议。本研究将帮助专业人员为自闭症成年人提供更合适的身体活动体验。此外，这项研究可以帮助从业者和研究人员使身体活动空间对自闭症成年人更具吸引力且更有趣。
