Friendship of Autistic Young Adults

<p>This study explored the perspective of behavior consultants on how autistic young adults</p><p>formed friendships in the adolescent developmental stage and how they maintained them into</p><p>adulthood. The research question for this study was How do behavior consultants describe the</p><p>formation and maintenance of autistic young adults' friendships from adolescence to young</p><p>adulthood? The sample consisted of ten behavior consultants who have been working with an</p><p>individual with ASD and have worked as a behavior consultant. The generic qualitative inquiry</p><p>method was used to discover how friendships are formed in adolescence by autistic young adults</p><p>from the perspective of behavior consultants who are with the young adults daily. Inductive</p><p>analysis was used to analyze the data and the results revealed three themes found in autistic</p><p>young adults' forming and maintaining friendships from adolescence into young adulthood. The</p><p>three themes are the formation and maintenance of friendships of autistic young adults are</p><p>similar to non-neurodivergent friendships transportation issues negatively affect friendships and</p><p>the decreased ability to understand social cues causes an increase in anxiety which can lead to</p><p>negatively affecting the formation and maintenance of friendships. The findings also explored</p><p>how technology can affect the formation and maintenance of friendships showed gender</p><p>differences in technology usage and delved into how social penetration theory can apply to</p><p>autistic individuals and friendship formation.</p>