ArticleCommunications psychology2025
Weak ties and the value of social connections for autistic people as revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Communications psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Autistic young people's psychological well-being in school.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- From Participants to Community Partners: A Novel Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Approach to Autistic-Led Inquiry in Digital and Virtual Environments.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Social relationships and mental wellbeing in autistic adolescent girls and boys: A longitudinal investigation.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- 'Breaking down a barrier': Autistic young people see virtual reality as a possible social support, but not a substitute for in-person interactions.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
- Understanding phenomenological experiences of autistic inertia using online community discourse.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- The double-edged sword of autistic traits: opposing pathways to loneliness via friendship similarity in Chinese adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A diverse portfolio of social relationships matters for people's wellbeing, including both strong, secure relationships with others ('close ties') and casual interactions with acquaintances and strangers ('weak ties'). Almost all of autism research has focused on Autistic people's close ties with friends, family and intimate partners, resulting in a radically constrained understanding of Autistic sociality. Here, we sought to understand the potential power of weak-tie interactions by drawing on 95 semi-structured interviews with Autistic young people and adults conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed the qualitative data using reflexive thematic analysis within an essentialist framework. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Autistic people deeply missed not only their close personal relationships but also their "incidental social contact" with acquaintances and strangers. These weak-tie interactions appear to serve similar functions for Autistic people as they do for non-autistic people, including promoting wellbeing. These findings have important implications both for future research into Autistic sociality and for the design of practical services and supports to enhance Autistic people's opportunities to flourish.
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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.