Purpose in adolescents diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder

Introduction: Drawing from positive youth development theory, the research team examined purpose in life among adolescents diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: Members of the research team conducted paired interviews about purpose in life with adolescents diagnosed with an ASD and one of each adolescent's parents. Data collection took place in the south-central region of the US. The eight adolescent participants were in middle school, high school, and early college. The research team open-coded interview transcripts and condensed these codes into meta-codes to aid in determining the form of purpose for each participant. Results: Similar to what has been found in studies of neurotypical youth, participants distributed diversely across the forms of purpose, with all but one participant demonstrating some aspect of purpose. Conclusions: The authors recommend practitioners consider the variety of supports they could provide to adolescents diagnosed with an ASD and consider encouraging these youth when their creative interests are sparked. Additionally, the research team invites the scholarly community to further investigate specific contextual supports and to develop ways of measuring purpose that do not rely on advanced language and social skills.