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Many people with relatively mild forms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (such as so-called high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome) go to work and are quite successful. Do they have to face any difficulties?
Tiffany Johnson and Aparna Joshi from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) want to answer this question. To this end, they conducted a study in which they interviewed in detail 30 people with autism spectrum disorders and, in addition, interviewed another 210 people via the Internet. Most of the respondents were 20-30 years old, about 2/3 of them were men, all of them worked in the service, finance or education sectors.
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- How close are you to autism?
As it turned out, it all depends on the age at which the autism spectrum disorder was diagnosed (this factor was taken into account, adjusted for sex, age, and severity of the disorder). Among those interviewed whose work required fairly intensive communication, those who were diagnosed later were less likely to consider themselves victims of discrimination and were more confident in their professional competence than those who were diagnosed at an early age. They were less inclined to identify themselves as a separate group and, to a certain extent, considered themselves members of the collective, although they experienced certain difficulties in communication. In contrast, those who were diagnosed at an early age were already accustomed to seeing themselves as “persons with ASD” by the time they entered the professional life, and they often considered themselves unsuitable for many activities – especially those that require a lot of communication.
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- What (doesn’t) help career growth?
Interestingly, those diagnosed in childhood preferred to work in organizations that provided some support to people with ASD, they were also willing to talk about their diagnosis and believed that they were less discriminated against and felt more confident when others knew about their condition. Those who were diagnosed at an older age, on the contrary, did not want such support – they did not want to be given special attention and set apart from others, preferring that others did not know about their diagnosis, but considered them just introverts.
Подробнее см. T. Johnson, А. Joshi «Dark Clouds or Silver Linings? A Stigma Threat Perspective on the Implications of an Autism Diagnosis for Workplace Well-Being», Journal of Applied Psychology, November 2015.