ArticleAutism : the international journal of research and practice2020
'I never realised everybody felt as happy as I do when I am around autistic people': A thematic analysis of autistic adults' relationships with autistic and neurotypical friends and family.
Article in Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 313 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Implicit Versus Explicit Social Skills Group Programs in Different Settings for School-Aged Autistic Children and Adolescents.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Pooled it
- 'A certain magic' - autistic adults' experiences of interacting with other autistic people and its relation to Quality of Life: A systematic review and thematic meta-synthesis.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Pooled it
- Social motor synchrony in autism spectrum conditions: A systematic review.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of observational, naturalistic, and neurophysiological outcome measures of nonpharmacological interventions for autism.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2022Pooled it
- Loneliness in autistic adults: A systematic review.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2022Pooled it
- Psychoeducational group intervention for intellectually able adults with autism and their close relations (Prisma) - an open feasibility study.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Communication Efficiency in Autism is Unaffected by Neurotype Match: Findings From a Collaborative Referencing Task.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Experiencing Independence: Perspectives from Autistic Adults.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Navigating Mixed-Neurotype Dialogue: Environmental and Affective Influences on Autistic Speakers.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Empathy and Interest Towards an Autistic Person and the Effect of Disclosing the Diagnosis.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- "Everyone Has a Different Body Constitution": An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Social Interaction and Related Supports in Chinese Autistic Postsecondary Students.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Using Photovoice to Capture the Quality of Life of the Australian Autistic Community.Autism in adulthood · 2026Article
- "I Accept Them, They Accept Me, We Enjoy Our Time Together": Autistic Adults' Preferences and Perceptions of Relationships With Other Autistic People.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Learning from the Experiences of Autistic Professionals Working in Health and Education.Autism in adulthood · 2026Article
- Unheard Voices: A Systematic Literature Review of Studies Using Self-Report Methods to Gather the Perspectives of Autistic Adults with Intellectual Disability.Autism in adulthood · 2026Article
- Perspectives of Autistic People, Parents, and Healthcare Professionals on Communication in Healthcare Settings and Related Needs in Georgia: A Qualitative Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Nuances of double empathy in autistic and non-autistic people: examination using the empathic accuracy paradigm.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Consistently longer silent gaps in autistic speaker pairs across three conversational contexts.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cognitive Empathy, Affective Empathy and Empirical Research on the Double Empathy Problem: A Critical Methodology Review.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Growing-up autistic: Sharing autistic children's experiences and insights.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
lay abstractAlthough autistic people may struggle to interact with others, many autistic people have said they find interacting with other autistic people more comfortable. To find out whether this was a common experience, we did hour-long interviews with 12 autistic adults. We asked them questions about how it feels when spending time with their friends and family, and whether it felt different depending on whether the friends and family were autistic or neurotypical. We analysed the interviews and found three common themes in what our participants said. First, they found spending with other autistic people easier and more comfortable than spending time with neurotypical people, and felt they were better understood by other autistic people. Second, autistic people often felt they were in a social minority, and in order to spend time with neurotypical friends and family, they had to conform with what the neurotypical people wanted and were used to. Third, autistic people felt like they belonged with other autistic people and that they could be themselves around them. These findings show that having time with autistic friends and family can be very beneficial for autistic people and played an important role in a happy social life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.