Expanding Research on Contextual Factors in Autism Research: What Took US So Long?

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2025, v. 18, no. 4: Expanding Research on Contextual Factors in Autism Research: What Took US So Long?
• Journal Article:
  Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research
• Personal Author:
  Mailick, Marsha ; Bennett, Teresa ; DaWalt, Leann Smith ; Durkin, Maureen S. ; Forbes, Gordon ; Howlin, Patricia ; Lord, Catherine ; Zaidman-Zait, Anat ; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie ; Bal, Vanessa ; Bishop, Somer ; Chiang, Chung-Hsin ; DiMartino, Adriana ; Freitag, Christine M. ; Georgiades, Stelios ; Hollocks, Matthew ; Lai, Meng-Chuan ; Maenner, Matthew J. ; Powell, Patrick S. ; Taylor, Julie Lounds ; Halladay, Alycia
• Description:
  Although autism is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, its features change across the life course due to a combination of individual and contextual influences. However, the influence of contextual factors on development during childhood and beyond is less frequently studied than individual factors such as genetic variants that increase autism risk, IQ, language, and autistic features. Potentially important contexts include the family environment and socioeconomic status, social networks, school, work, services, neighborhood characteristics, environmental events, and sociocultural factors. Here, we articulate the benefit of studying contextual factors, and we offer selected examples of published longitudinal autism studies that have focused on how individuals develop within context. Expanding the autism research agenda to include the broader context in which autism emerges and changes across the life course can enhance understanding of how contexts influence the heterogeneity of autism, support strengths and resilience, or amplify disabilities. We describe challenges and opportunities for future research on contextual influences and provide a list of digital resources that can be integrated into autism data sets. It is important to conceptualize contextual influences on autism development as main exposures, not only as descriptive variables or factors needing statistical control.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Child
  • Humans
  • Autistic Disorder
  • Biomedical Research
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Social Environment
• Keywords:
  • autism
  • longitudinal
  • contextual
  • research
  • behavior
  • outcomes
• Source:
  Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2025, v. 18, no. 4
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3312
• ISSN:
  1939-3792 ; 1939-3806
• Pubmed ID:
  39902495
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC12015804
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  P50HD105353/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/ ; Pathways in ASD Study/ ; R01 HD082110-06/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/ ; P50 HD105353/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD082110/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; PCORI/Patient-Centered Outcomes Research InstituteUnited States/ ; 14-100/ASF/Autism Science FoundationUnited States/ ; R01 MH121438/MH/NIMH NIH HHSUnited States/ ; Laidlaw Chair in Patient-Centered Care/ ; R01 MH121438/NH/NIH HHSUnited States/ ; CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Pages in Document:
  710-716 (12 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261709/cdc_261709_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 72.15 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cf570f918a14c643a7d2156e9bbe64015376a13149347f8cec88ed6bb7589f9d1fa969457fe57d7309663fd8d57b6e5cf757f2692d5ed5c9c9a0445d55da33c7