Lifetime stressor exposure and suicidality in autistic adults: a multinational study examining the role of gender in interpersonal life stress

Authors

Abstract

Despite very high rates of suicidality in autistic adults, the key psychosocial drivers of this phenomenon remain unknown. To investigate this, we examined how lifetime stressor exposure and severity, which have been found to predict suicidality in non-autistic populations, related to suicidality in a large, multinational dataset of 226 autistic adults (67% female; Mage = 41.8, SD = 13.6 years, age range = 19–73). Results revealed that autistic men and women differ with respect to the count, severity, and type of stressors they experience over the life course. While autistic men were exposed to more numerous legal/crime-related stressors, autistic women experienced more numerous stressors related to social relationships and chronic humiliation, and typically experienced stressors as more severe. Additionally, we found that whereas chronic interpersonal loss was particularly strongly related to suicidality for men, acute dangerous events, and lower exposure to chronic entrapment, were most strongly related to suicidality in autistic women. These findings indicate that certain stressors may be differentially experienced, and relevant to suicidality, in autistic men versus women. They also suggest that screening for lifetime stressor exposure may help identify autistic individuals at greatest risk for suicide.

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