Stigma Management Strategies of Autistic Social Media Users

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. The publication reports two autistic authors, without identifying them by name.

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Koteyko, N., Van Driel, M., Billan, S., Barros Pena, B., & Vines, J. (2024). Stigma Management Strategies of Autistic Social Media Users. Autism in Adulthood, 7(3), 273-282. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0095

Journal or book title
Autism in Adulthood
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
7
Issue
3
Pages
273-282
Publication date: 10 Apr 2024 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
5
Autistic authors reported by the publication
2
  1. Nelya Koteyko
  2. Martine Van Driel *
  3. Sofia Billan *
  4. Belén Barros Pena
  5. John Vines

Abstract

Background: Research on stigma management strategies in autism relies on questionnaires or experiments, leading to a gap in understanding of how to identify the strategies in naturalistic interactions. The identification of individual (adapting minority group characteristics) and collective (positively redeveloping the in-group) stigma management strategies in online communication is important for understanding how to improve the quality of social media experiences for autistic users. Methods: Using linguistic analysis and engaging with ethnographic perspectives on relationship management, this article develops a novel approach to the identification of individual and collective stigma management strategies of autistic social media users. We combine online observation and interviews with 34 autistic social media users with a corpus-assisted analysis of their posts, divided into two groups according to regular or limited mentions of autism. Results: We show that posts in the first group focus on information provision and exchange and include markers of shared understanding and community building as part of a collective strategy. Interviews with the authors reveal a strong sense of autistic identity and highlight the importance of staying true to one's specific communicative preferences. Posts in the second group are characterized by tentative language (e.g., "seem" and "not sure") as a way of avoiding social threats by users who report uncertainty and anxiety about misinterpretation of their messages. Conclusions: We show that autistic social media users have specific preferences in how they communicate and express connection online. However, due to negative experiences of social interactions some do not follow these preferences and instead select linguistic and visual resources that can reduce perceived risks of misunderstanding. We question the claims that the internet is inherently enabling for autistic users and call for further research and policy effort to ensure autistic sociality rights in all digital environments.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 3 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
61
With a DOI
51
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
8
15 / 61 (24.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 61 (8.2%)
References with detected author names
57 / 61 (93.4%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
3
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
122
From DOI or external metadata
122
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
63 / 122 (51.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 59 / 122 (48.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
19 / 122 (15.6%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 19 / 63 (30.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 15 / 101 (14.9%).
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