Autism and Thriving: A Critical Review of the Academic Literature

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Dantas, S., Jasper, C., Botha, M., Strachan, K., & Grainger, C. (2025). Autism and Thriving: A Critical Review of the Academic Literature. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0228

Publication date: 12 Feb 2025 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
5
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 5 (20.0%)
  1. Sarah Dantas
  2. Carol Jasper
  3. Monique Botha *
  4. Khiah Strachan
  5. Catherine Grainger

Abstract

While traditional deficit-based biomedical accounts of autism have viewed autism itself as an obstacle to thriving, recent discussions based on social/relational models of disability argue that this pathologizing rhetoric perpetuates stigma and negative views of autism, which, in turn, create social and environmental challenges that hinder autistic people’s ability to thrive. In that sense, this critical review aimed to analyze how the current academic literature approaches the construct of autistic thriving, using techniques of critical discourse analysis. We found two broad categories that depict a contrast between studies that (1) viewed thriving as a process that looks the same to autistic and non-autistic people alike and perceived autism as a “problem” to be addressed and (2) articles that, alternatively, described autism as a natural difference and attempted to understand autistic thriving, to some extent, from an autistic perspective. We recommend future research that meaningfully and directly engages autistic people in expressing what thriving means to them and what factors facilitate it.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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

Bibliography inclusion overview

These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
38
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
13 / 38 (34.2%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
20 / 120 (16.7%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 20 / 62 (32.3%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 14 / 112 (12.5%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
62 / 120 (51.7%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 54 / 112 (48.2%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
42 / 62 (67.7%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 42 / 120 (35.0%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 40 / 54 (74.1%).
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