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…

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…

Latino children on the autism spectrum experience less access to autism services and more barriers to service-use than non-Latino White children. Yet, existing research leaves unanswered questions about how cultural, family, and service system-level processes contribute to autism service-use disparities. This study aimed to qualitatively explore…

Compared to non-immigrant families of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), immigrant families tend to experience more challenges securing an evaluation, obtaining a diagnosis, and accessing services for their child/children diagnosed with ASD. Several studies investigated the experiences of various groups of immigrant families. They…

Individual differences are known to influence the risk of trauma exposure and development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It has been suggested that features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may confer such risk. This article provides a systematic review of the assessment and treatment of PTSD in individuals with ASD, in addition to…

Youths' experiences in seeking and accessing help for mental health problems can have pervasive and lasting effects on personal and interpersonal functioning. In particular, youth who experience validating experiences presumably persevere in seeking help and generally have positive treatment outcomes, whereas youth who experience invalidation are…

Background and aims: A high rate of children in mental health services have poor language skills, but little evidence exists on how mental health support is delivered to and received by children with language needs. This study looked at parental experiences, asking parents of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) about…