Where Does Hope Lie? The Dialectical Tensions Between Hopes and Expectations of Vocational Transition Planning from the Perspectives of Autistic Young Adults, Parents, and Practitioners.

The post-secondary transition for autistic youth is a complex process, with hopes and expectations serving as malleable mediators often overlooked in research and practice. Career awareness, exploration, and counseling services play a critical role in facilitating vocational transition, but the vocational hopes and expectations of autistic youth and their parents are often disregarded. This study aims to explore these aspirations and their impact on the vocational transition process, seeking to harmonize elements to better align with the needs of autistic youth and their families. This study used a focus group design involving group interviews with three participant groups: autistic transition-aged youth, parents, and practitioners. The findings reveal five key themes: 1) Accepting Disability or Constrained by Ableism: Resisting Marginalization, 2) Finding the Sweet Spot: Are Parents and Youth's Expectations Too High or Too Low, 3) Market Forces at Work-Finding a Meaningful Vocational Path in a Capitalist Society, 4) Despite Meticulous Planning, there is a Disconnect Between Needs and Resources, and 5) The Hills and Valleys of Finding Resilience. Navigating the multifaceted landscape of vocational transition planning for autistic youth necessitates a collaborative and flexible approach. Identified tensions serve as opportunities for growth and transformation. Recognizing and addressing system shortcomings is crucial for informed decision-making. Challenges extend beyond individual circumstances, reflecting broader systemic issues, and identifying these gaps allows for a comprehensive understanding of available resources, cultivating a basis of hope as uncertainties are addressed.

Emotion regulation from a virtue perspective.

BACKGROUND: The ability to regulate one's emotional state is an important predictor of several behaviors such as reframing a challenging situation to reduce anger or anxiety, concealing visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy or calm. This capacity is referred to as emotion regulation. Deficits in this ability can adversely affect one's adaptive coping, thus are associated with a variety of other psychopathological symptoms, including but not limited to depression, borderline personality disorder, substance use disorders, eating disorders, and somatoform disorders. METHODS: The present study examined emotion regulation in relation to the virtue-based psychosocial adaptation model (V-PAM). 595 participants were clustered based on their Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) score, producing two clusters (i.e., high functioning vs. low functioning). Then, emotion regulation group membership was discriminated by using five V-PAM virtue constructs, including courage, integrity, practical wisdom, committed action, and emotional transcendence. RESULTS: Results show that five virtues contribute to differentiating group membership. Practical wisdom was the strongest contributor, followed by integrity, emotional transcendence, committed action, and courage. Predictive discriminant analysis was conducted and 71% of cases were correctly classified. A discussion of the relationship between emotion regulation and virtues was elaborated. CONCLUSION: The concept of virtue holds significant importance in the comprehension of an individual's capacity to regulate their emotions, meriting future study.

The interplay of supports and barriers during the transition to adulthood for youth on the autism spectrum.

PURPOSE: Transition to adulthood is a complex process that involves important life domains such as education, work, independent living, community, health, and social relationships. Autistic youth face the transition with greater challenges than their peers, and there continues to have significant gaps in the services as they approach young adulthood. The study was conducted to understand the complex interplay between supports and barriers to participation in the transition process. METHOD: Data was collected through six focus groups with 24 participants (7 parents, 11 practitioners, 6 autistic youth), digitally audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four themes were reported: Inadequacy of Services, Ambivalence about Formal Services and Support, Understanding Good Partnership, and Evolving Parental Involvement. While parents and practitioners see the fragmented services and lack of comprehensive support as the most prominent challenge, autistic youth feel ambivalent about the type of services they need. Practitioners address the importance of establishing an appropriate level of engagement with parents in the transition process. Autistic youth expect their parents to set a boundary that affirms their independence. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the need to elicit input across different stakeholders to make transition services centralized, easily accessible, and individualized.Implications for RehabilitationIt is important to have a systematic road map, early preparation of families and autistic youth about the array of adult transition services, and a centralized hub of information to be disseminated.Disability service agencies should develop and implement plans for enhancing outreach and services to transition youth on the autism spectrum and their families.Practitioners need to identify locally available resources and channels for outreach and make available service more visible by producing transition-related materials with examples of current legislative information, problem solving, and best practices.Practitioners should consider how autistic youth identify their needs and wants may be different than how service providers and parents conceptualize them.It is critical to capitalize appropriate levels of caregivers/family support and engagement by provision of education about policies and guidelines for communication and collaboration.

The Role of Acceptance in the Transition to Adulthood: A Multi-Informant Comparison of Practitioners, Families, and Youth with Autism.

This study investigated the role of acceptance during the transition process among autistic young adults, parents, and practitioners. Six focus groups were run and thematic analysis was used to identify four themes: Youth on the autism spectrum discussed transition as a time where Self-Advocacy and Self-Acceptance were salient. Both youth and parents discussed the Lack of Understanding and Acceptance they experience. Particularly, youth highlighted the lack of understanding of sensory needs and parents underscored the lack of understanding by medical professionals. In contrast, practitioners highlighted the presence of Community Openness. Both practitioners and parents discussed Finding Personal Support through Acceptance. Self-acceptance and acceptance of autism are imperative for autistic young adults and families to achieve well-being.

State Vocational Rehabilitation Services and Employment Outcomes for Asian Americans with Psychiatric Disabilities.

One major concern of Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities is underutilization of services, furthermore their service needs and accessibility have been significantly understudied. This study examined the effects of the public vocational rehabilitation (VR) services on employment outcomes for Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities in the United States. This study investigated which individual characteristics, work disincentives, and VR service types were related to competitive employment outcomes among Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities and compared the findings to other racial/ethnic groups. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze a sample of RSA-911 data from fiscal year 2013. The results provided empirical support regarding VR services and employment outcomes for Asian Americans with psychiatric disabilities. Specifically, level of education, work experiences, and receipt of health insurance benefits were significantly related to employment outcomes among the Asian American group. Regarding VR services, job placement assistance, on-the-job supports, maintenance, miscellaneous training, and other services also predicted employment outcomes. Future research needs to address the impact of specific cultural factors on access to VR services, service utilization, and employment outcomes.

Development, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of an employment-related social skills intervention for young adults with high-functioning autism.

This article details the iterative development, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of an 8-week work-related social skills intervention, Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training, for young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. In this mixed-methods study, pre- and post-intervention surveys, interviews, and functional measures were used to gather information on the program's feasibility, user acceptability, practicality, and preliminary efficacy. Results indicate that Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training graduates showed significant improvements in work-related social skills knowledge, social functioning, and social/empathy self-efficacy. Participants and group facilitators also reported high satisfaction with program activities, training modalities, frequency, and duration of the intervention. Results support expanded use of group-based, work-related, social skills interventions for young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Moreover, these findings, though preliminary, suggest that manualized, empirically based programs like Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training promote improved social functioning, self-confidence, engagement, and adherence to training, as well as broader impacts, including improved sense of belonging and greater employability in this traditionally underserved population.

An exploration of Asian Americans in the state vocational rehabilitation system by disability type.

BACKGROUND: The limited amount of information available on Asian Americans with different types of disability in vocational rehabilitation (VR) system has been a major obstacle to developing appropriate policies and practices. OBJECTIVE: Using the Rehabilitation Service Administration data (RSA-911), this study investigated the associations between demographic characteristics, VR service patterns, and employment outcomes of Asian Americans. Whether the relationships differed by type of disabilities (i.e., sensory/communicative, physical, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities) among Asian Americans was also examined. METHODS: A series of chi-squared tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression were conducted to examine the associations and differences among demographic characteristics, service patterns, and employment outcomes across four major disability groups. RESULTS: Each disability group showed different service patterns that indicate unique consumer needs, individualized services and supports to be delivered in a culturally sensitive manner. Along with the demographic profiles of Asian Americans, factors significantly associated with competitive employment in each group were identified. CONCLUSIONS: This explorative study's finding implies VR practitioners' need to understand individual needs by disability type as well as characteristics of Asian culture, and need to develop and implement effective strategies and services to assist this population.