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Understanding Service Usage and Needs for Adults with ASD: The Importance of Living Situation

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Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research examining the service experiences of this population is greatly needed. The current study investigated service use, unmet needs, and obstacles to service access for a large sample of adults with ASD. After accounting for various demographic factors known to impact service usage and needs, living situation was a significant predictor of service use, needs, and obstacles to services. Adults with ASD living with family reported less service use, higher unmet need, and more obstacles to accessing services. With more than half of this adult sample living with family, results have clear public policy implications to support the increasing population of adults with ASD living with aging caregivers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Autism Speaks and Foundation of Hope. We would like to express our gratitude to the individuals and families who volunteered their time to contribute to this research. We would also like to thank Paul Shattuck for his consultation on this work.

Funding

This study was funded by Autism Speaks (Grant #8316) and the Foundation of Hope.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Katerina M. Dudley

  2. TEACCH Autism Program, CB#7180, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7180, USA

    Katerina M. Dudley, Mark R. Klinger & Laura G. Klinger

  3. Department of Allied Health Services, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Mark R. Klinger

  4. Department of Pediatrics, JFK Partners, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Aurora, CO, USA

    Allison Meyer

  5. School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Patrick Powell

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Laura G. Klinger

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  1. Katerina M. Dudley
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Contributions

KMD contributed in conception or design of the work. PP, AM, MRK, and LGK contributed in data collection. KMD, MRK, LGK, and PP contributed in data analysis and interpretation. KMD contributed in drafting the article. KMD, LGK, and MRK contributed in critical revision of the article. KMD, LGK, MRK, PP, and AM contributed in final approval of the version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katerina M. Dudley.

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Conflict of interest

Katerina M. Dudley, Mark R. Klinger, Allison Meyer, Patrick Powell and Laura G. Klinger declares that they has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Dudley, K.M., Klinger, M.R., Meyer, A. et al. Understanding Service Usage and Needs for Adults with ASD: The Importance of Living Situation. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 556–568 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3729-0

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