Autistic people experience a higher prevalence of self-harming behaviours than do the general population. Self-harm remains a stigmatised topic, and until recently, self-harming behaviours in autism were considered to be limited to self-injurious behaviours experienced by intellectually impaired autistic children and not to be experienced by…

Purpose: Autistic adults experience high rates of traumatic events and PTSD. However, little work has evaluated motor vehicle accident (MVA) related trauma symptoms. The goal of this brief report was to provide pilot data characterizing MVA-related peritraumatic reactions, trauma symptoms, and rates of PTSD diagnosis and mental health service use…

Rates of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors are elevated among autistic youth, yet research is limited to caregiver report or single-item questionnaires. Investigation of specific suicidal thoughts, triggers, and disclosure is needed to improve risk assessment and interventions. The current study characterized self-injurious thoughts and…

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience stress, potentially affecting parenting and child outcomes. The roles of psychological flexibility and parental reflective functioning in coping strategies of parents of children with ASD are not fully understood. The study aims to examine differences in psychological flexibility,…

Mothers of children with disabilities can experience compromised health. Targeted interventions require investigation to determine effectiveness. Healthy Mothers Healthy Families (HMHF) is a health, wellbeing and empowerment program that addresses mothers need to protect, and or, recover their own health due to caregiving impacts. This study…