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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0162

Coping with stress and mental health risk in autistic adults: development and validation of an autism-sensitive coping inventory

STRESS COPING AND MENTAL HEALTH RISK IN AUTISTIC ADULTS: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF AN AUTISM-SENSITIVE COPING INVENTORY

The 33-item, 11-dimension COPE-A inventory was developed to include autism-specific coping strategies, with evidence supporting its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across neurodiverse employee groups.

The study aimed to develop an autism-sensitive workplace coping inventory and evaluate its psychometric properties, on the grounds that widely used coping inventories fail to capture strategies specific to autistic experience, such as sensory regulation, masking, routines, and the use of special interests. The inventory was developed through a three-round participatory grounded Delphi study involving 5 autistic employees and 6 professionals who work with autistic employees; the rounds first assessed the suitability of the Brief COPE, then identified strategies grounded in lived experience and collaboratively generated items. A total of 21 workplace coping strategies were identified, with autism-specific strategies such as masking, structure and routines, sensory reduction, stimming, use of special interests, overthinking, and disclosure added to established emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies. In a sample of 233 employees who self-identified as autistic, with a mean age of 31.1 years (standard deviation (SD) 9.9), 89 candidate items were reduced to 33 items and 11 coping dimensions using exploratory factor analysis (EFA; principal axis factoring, oblimin rotation, parallel analysis); factor loadings ranged from 0.48 to 0.88, Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.64 to 0.91, and the KMO value was 0.76. In measurement invariance analyses involving 221 non-autistic neurodivergent employees (with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, and tic disorders), the configural model showed adequate fit (comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.922; RMSEA = 0.048), and metric (delta CFI = -0.003) and scalar (delta CFI = -0.008) invariance were supported. An 11-item short form, comprising the highest-loading item from each dimension, takes approximately two minutes to complete; in a cross-sectional analysis of 156 employees with a diagnosis of autism using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, humor and acceptance strategies were associated with higher well-being, whereas sensory reduction was associated with lower well-being. The authors note that the association between sensory reduction and well-being may reflect underlying sensory and environmental demands rather than a maladaptive form of coping, and suggest that the instrument could be used in coaching, workplace support, and employee development contexts.

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