My research explores how autistic children experience stress. Autistic children may be more susceptible to stress, placing them at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depression, across the lifespan.

Healthcare interventions designed to improve coping with stress are often informed by caregivers’ reports, despite evidence that children as young as four years old can describe their own experiences of stress. My research seeks to understand stress from the perspectives of autistic children themselves by prioritising their self-reports. This work offers to advance scientific understanding of lived experiences of autistic children to inform the design and development of healthcare interventions that are better tailored to their needs. Ultimately, this research aims to reduce the negative effects of stress and improve health and well-being across the lifespan.