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A belated Happy New Year to our followers! While 2020 was a challenging year, our little STAR team grew with new members and research. This thread summarises our publications from the last year. If you can’t access any, do get in touch with the lead authors!
Much of STAR's work focuses on wellbeing. At the start of the year, @DrEilidh published a chapter which summarises research looking at the relationships between autism acceptance and mental health https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348338159_Autism_Acceptance_and_Mental_Health
. @amanda_roestorf co-authored a paper reviewing research on social prescribing (e.g. support, hobby, advocacy or community groups etc.) and discussing whether this should be offered to autistic people by healthcare providers https://amrcopenresearch.org/articles/2-19
Additionally, @amanda_roestorf contributed to research testing whether online, self-guided cognitive behaviour therapy or mindfulness therapy could reduce anxiety in autistic adults https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361320909184
. @DrMBotha published a qualitative paper investigating identity, stigma, and resistance in the autistic community, showing that autistic people face barriers from stigma, but also use language and creativity to resist and reframe such stigma https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2020.1822782
And @DrEilidh and Zoe Troxell-Whitman noted the role disclosure plays in the relationship between autistic identity and camouflaging https://bit.ly/3qXIRc7
Our researchers also look at learning and education. For example, @DrEilidh looked at the factors related to dropping out of university for autistic people - noting the role of transitions, lack of belonging and academic difficulties https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S175094672030009X?via%3Dihub
. @DrEilidh and @JackPHowes also interviewed autistic people about their experiences of dropping out of university, noting a number of systemic barriers and challenges within university settings https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362361320918750
. @amanda_roestorf co-authored a free "Evidence-based Guide to Supporting Learning in Autism" resource with @LVSHassocks & @cityarg Prof Dermot Bowler - available online https://www.city.ac.uk/news/2020/may/helping-to-support-learning-in-autism
Other STAR research looks at memory and thinking. For example, @amanda_roestorf and colleagues published a paper looking at an eye-tracking method for testing memory with autistic people with a range of support needs https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aur.2368
. @CathSGrainger published experimental research on meta-cognition (thinking about your own thinking) and mindreading (thinking about what other people think) https://doi.apa.org/fulltext/2020-65608-001.html
And a systematic review on the use of self-report for testing meta-cognition more generally @CathSGrainger https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11409-020-09222-y
As well as a summary chapter explaining more about the topic of metacognition in autistic people @CathSGrainger https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/1587670
Finally, to summarise work on the topic of prospective memory – remembering to remember - @amanda_roestorf and @CathSGrainger also published a chapter on this topic in the Encyclopaedia of Autism https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102535-1.
