It’s part of me: autistic adolescents thoughts and feelings towards their autistic identity/autism diagnosis

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Sharp, K. E., Baczewski, L., Bertollo, J. R., Neuman, C. C., Lopez, A., Carel, E., Verbalis, A., Pugliese, C. E., & Kenworthy, L. (2026). It’s part of me: autistic adolescents thoughts and feelings towards their autistic identity/autism diagnosis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 17, 1767141-1767141. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1767141

Journal or book title
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Volume
17
Pages
1767141-1767141
Article number
1767141
Publication date: 7 Aug 2026 Added to AutiHub: 2 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
9
Autistic authors reported by the publication
Number not specified
  1. K. E. Sharp
  2. Lauren Baczewski
  3. Jennifer R. Bertollo
  4. Chloe C. Neuman
  5. Andrea Lopez
  1. Elodie Carel
  2. Alyssa Verbalis
  3. Cara E. Pugliese
  4. Lauren Kenworthy

Abstract

Introduction Adolescence is characterized by active and ongoing identity development. Autism is one aspect of identity and positive feelings about one’s autistic identity predict better self-esteem and psychological wellbeing among autistic people. This study aimed to explore autistic adolescents’ thoughts, feelings, and attitudes about their autism diagnosis. Methods Sixty autistic adolescents (Average Age = 16.65 years) in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area participated in brief semi-structured interviews asking the adolescents to describe their current diagnoses, feelings toward those diagnoses, and whether they disclose their diagnoses to friends or feel comfortable talking about them in social settings. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to code interview responses and generate themes. Results From the interviews, five main themes were generated related to participant feelings toward their autism diagnosis: 1) value of neurodivergent community, 2) autism terminology, 3) stigma or stereotypes about autism, 4) journey to understanding, and 5) autistic identity. Conclusion This study highlights the diverse, complex, and nuanced thoughts autistic adolescents have about their autism diagnosis. Factors such as internalized stigma, neurodivergent community, and knowledge about autism impact identification with an autism diagnosis. Our findings emphasize the importance of neurodivergent community and neurodiversity-affirming views to increase positive autistic identity and self-acceptance.

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 01:01.

Cited references
59
With a DOI
47
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
12
9 / 59 (15.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
1 / 59 (1.7%)
References with detected author names
58 / 59 (98.3%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
12
References with raw author names still to review
0
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
192
From DOI or external metadata
192
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
92 / 192 (47.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 100 / 192 (52.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
11 / 192 (5.7%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 11 / 92 (12.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 9 / 171 (5.3%).
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