Measuring and validating autistic burnout.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Autistic burnout is increasingly recognized, yet validated assessment tools remain scarce.
• Understanding and measuring autistic burnout is crucial for supporting autistic individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure (ABM) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory-Personal (CBI-P).
• To compare their efficacy as screening tools for autistic burnout in a sample of autistic adults.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were used to determine the structure of the ABM and CBI-P.
• Reliability and validity were assessed using correlations, ANOVA, ROC analysis, sensitivity, specificity, and ICC.
• The study included 238 autistic adults.

Main Results:

• The ABM demonstrated a unidimensional structure, while the CBI-P showed a multidimensional structure with two subscales.
• Both the ABM and CBI-P (specifically the Emotional Exhaustion subscale) showed strong correlations with depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue.
• Moderate correlations were found between burnout measures, camouflaging, and wellbeing.

Conclusions:

• The ABM and the CBI-P Emotional Exhaustion subscale are validated preliminary screening tools for autistic burnout.
• Further validation in larger, diverse autistic samples is recommended to refine understanding of autistic burnout and its relationship with depression and masking.