Alexithymia, Inner Thinking Patterns, and Perceptions of Mental Health Therapy Strategies Among Autistic Adults.
Purpose: Autistic adults are at high risk for mental health challenges, yet there has been limited research on mental health interventions for this population. Individual differences in how thoughts and emotions are perceived may directly relate to the success of specific therapy strategies. This st...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 1370 - 1382 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=192345541&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 192345541 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 01623257 AUT jtl: Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders issn: 01623257 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 56 iid: 4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 192345541 180881423 192345541 192345541 10.1007/s10803-024-06643-5 192345541 ppf: 1370 ppct: 12 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Alexithymia, Inner Thinking Patterns, and Perceptions of Mental Health Therapy Strategies Among Autistic Adults. aug: au: Mazurek, Micah O. Pappagianopoulos, Jessica Brunt, Sophie Menezes, Michelle Smith, Jessica V. Howard, Mya affil: https://ror.org/0153tk833 Department of Human Services, School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, PO Box 400267, 417 Emmet Street South, 22904, Charlottesville, VA, USA sug: subj: Autism Spectrum Disorder Psychosocial Factors Affective Symptoms Thinking Evaluation Attitude to Mental Illness Evaluation Attitude to Medical Treatment Evaluation Human Adult Middle Age Aged Male Female Funding Source Descriptive Statistics Questionnaires Mental Health Logistic Regression Cognition Verbal Behavior Mind Body Techniques Breathing Exercises Muscle Relaxation Mindfulness Meditation Self-Talk Usability Study Exploratory Research Cross Sectional Studies Scales Coefficient alpha Nonparametric Statistics Bivariate Statistics Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Mann-Whitney U Test Kruskal-Wallis Test Psychometrics Evaluation Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Male Female ab: Purpose: Autistic adults are at high risk for mental health challenges, yet there has been limited research on mental health interventions for this population. Individual differences in how thoughts and emotions are perceived may directly relate to the success of specific therapy strategies. This study examined whether alexithymia and inner thinking patterns relate to helpfulness and ease of use of mental health therapy strategies among autistic adults. Method: Participants (n = 269 autistic adults, ages 21–77) completed questionnaires assessing alexithymia, inner thinking patterns (i.e., self-talk, verbal thinking, visual thinking), and experiences with mental health therapy strategies. Ordinal logistic regressions were used to examine associations between alexithymia, inner thinking, and perceived helpfulness and ease of use of therapy strategies. Results: Autistic adults with greater alexithymia found cognitive strategies more difficult to use, while those with greater frequency of self-talk found them easier to use. By contrast, autistic adults with greater visual thinking found guided imagery strategies easier to use. There were no associations between alexithymia or inner thinking and perceived helpfulness or ease of use of behavioral strategies (exposure, behavioral activation), mind–body relaxation strategies (deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation), or mindfulness meditation. Conclusions: The findings suggest that some mental health strategies may be more difficult to implement for some autistic adults, depending on individual thinking profiles. However, alexithymia and inner thinking patterns were unrelated to the perceived helpfulness of mental health strategies. Overall, this highlights the importance of providing individualized supports and accommodations to optimize mental health therapy for autistic adults. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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