What Are the Lived Experiences of Strengths in Autistic Individuals? A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis

Research about strengths in autistic individuals has often been based on informant perspectives. These may not align with the subjective experiences and perspectives of autistic people themselves. This study therefore aimed to center the perspectives of autistic people through a qualitative synthesis investigating the lived experiences of strengths in autistic individuals.

A systematic search identified 26 qualitative articles that met the inclusion criteria, out of articles that used qualitative methods to understand autistic participants' perspectives on strengths in autism.

A thematic synthesis approach generated four themes as follows: wired differently, focused interests enrich life, embracing an autism identity, and context-dependent strengths. The review findings showed that autistic individuals value abilities and attributes that they can use to help them thrive in their daily lives, for example, by enhancing their performance at work, enjoyment during an activity, or helping others. Participants had differing views about whether their strengths were attributable to their autism. Autistic strengths extended beyond abilities to pride in having an autism identity and self-knowledge. Participants recognized that their ability to express themselves or their strengths often depended on the context.

Recommendations include supporting autistic individuals to openly explore their interests and experiences and to recognize for themselves the characteristics and skills they value, for example, how to draw upon focused interests to develop relaxation strategies.

Why is this an important issue?: Autism research has often focused on the difficulties faced by autistic people rather than on their strengths. Also, research has often asked parents or professionals their opinions rather than asking autistic people themselves.What was the purpose of this study?: We wanted to understand how autistic people experience and talk about their own strengths. Strengths are the things we are good at.What did the researchers do?: This type of research is called a systematic review and meta-synthesis. We searched online databases to find all the published research articles in this area. We looked for studies that asked autistic people how they experience their own strengths. We collected the findings from the studies and identified themes across them. The themes tell us what autistic people think about their strengths.What were the results of the study?: We found 26 published articles that could be included in our review. We generated four themes. Autistic people described different thinking abilities and traits that they linked to autism: some brought enjoyment while others were useful life skills. Focused interests were described as enriching life through bringing well-being, knowledge and skills, and opportunities for social connection. Autistic participants described that having an autistic identity could be a strength, for example, through reflecting on their past or taking pride in their differences. Strengths changed over time and depended on the context of the time or situation.What do these findings add to what was already known?: This adds to our knowledge by providing an integrated and robust summary of all the published literature in the area. Our findings show that autistic people experience some of their autistic traits as strengths, including thinking skills and focused interests.What are potential weaknesses in the study?: Not many of the included articles set out to explore strengths, so we did not always have a large amount of data to analyze from each study. We are just focusing on one aspect of the autistic experience: some people may not experience autistic strengths, either through not associating their experiences with autism or because they experience mostly challenges associated with autism.How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: The findings show that autistic people identify strengths and benefits to being autistic. It could help to share these findings with newly diagnosed autistic people or those who are struggling with understanding autism and what it means for them personally. It might help autistic people who have mostly identified challenges associated with being autistic to identify some of their strengths.