Individuals with autism tend to have a reduced quality of life across their lifespan. This reduced quality of life may be a result of autism traits, mental distress, and poor person/environment fit. In this longitudinal study, we looked at the role of adolescence internalizing and externalizing problems in mediating the relationship between having an autism diagnosis from childhood and perceived quality of life as emerging adults.A total of 66 participants in a group of emerging adults with autism (mean age 22.2 years), and without autism (mean age 20.9 years) were assessed in three assessment waves (T1 at 12 years, T2 at 14 years, and T3 at 22 years of age). Parents filled out the Child Behavior Checklist at T2 and participants filled out the Perceived Quality of Life Questionnaire at T3. Total and indirect effects were tested in serial mediation analysis.The results showed that internalizing problems fully mediated the association between childhood autism diagnosis and the quality of life in emerging adulthood, while externalizing problems did not.Our findings suggest that attention to adolescent internalizing problems is important to improve the later quality of life for emerging adults with autism. 

/pdf/adolescence-internalizing-problems-as-a-mediator-between-2a6ru5kd.pdf

Adolescence internalizing problems as a mediator between autism diagnosis in childhood and quality of life in emerging adults with and without autism: a 10-year longitudinal study

Discrimination and victimization as mediators between social support and psychological distress in autistic adults

Abstract Background Individuals with autism tend to have a reduced quality of life across the lifespan. This reduced quality of life is a result of autism traits, mental distress, and poor person/environment fit. In the present study, we examined the mediating role of internalizing and externalizing problems on the relationship between having an autism diagnosis and perceived quality of life in a longitudinal design. Methods There were in total 66 participants in a combined group of emerging adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (mean age 22.2 years), and a group without autism (mean age 20.9 years) prospectively followed for ten years through three assessment waves at 12, 14 and 22 years. Participants filled out the Perceived Quality of Life Questionnaire. Total and indirect effects were tested in serial mediation analysis. Results Results revealed a significant effect of autism on quality of life. Internalizing problems at two-year follow-up significantly mediated quality of life in emerging adulthood while externalizing problems did not. The direct effect of autism on quality of life did not reach statistical significance after entering internalizing problems as a mediator. Conclusion There is a significant correlation between having autism and poor quality of life; however, this correlation is mediated by adolescent internalizing problems' impact on the current perceived quality of life. 

Internalizing Problems as a Mediator for Quality of Life in Emerging Adults with and without Autism. A 10- year longitudinal study

The role of alexithymia and autistic traits in predicting quality of life in an online sample

This first issue of Ecumenica’s fifteenth volume pays respect to I Nyoman Cerita. His essay on calonarang performance in Bali was under review, here, when he passed away in late 2021. A respected artist and scholar, Cerita taught at the Institut Seni Indonesia and choreographed performances of many sorts around the world. Cerita has written about the ritual practice of performers in calonarang and encourages us to regard that practice as fundamental to calonarang performers’ art. In this issue we offer his essay, which was co-authored by his friend Kathy Foley, Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC-Santa Cruz and a past editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Foley and I Nyoman Sedana provide a preface to this essay, in memory of I Nyoman Cerita and as an introduction to the art in which he was a true expert.This issue also offers the first of two parts of Kristen Rudisill’s translation of Cho Ramasamy’s play Cāttiram Coṉṉatilai (The Scriptures Don’t Say So). Composed in Tamil, Ramasamy’s comic play dramatizes caste conflict in southern India, where caste and its implications are fundamentally entangled with religion. The second part, completing this first English translation of the play, will appear in this volume’s second issue.The last feature item in this issue is an interview with Moslem Nadalizadeh, professor of Persian Language at Ahlul Bayt International University in Tehran, Iran, who has also been a ta’ziyeh performer from childhood. In this conversation, Nadalizadeh reflects on the history of his family of ta’ziyeh performers and comments on the central features and methods of ta’ziyeh performance.The performance reviews and the book reviews in this issue attend to two specific topics. Readers will find here reviews of separate pastorela performances of this past holiday season. Javier L. Hurtado articulates his experience of El Teatro Campesino’s renowned La Pastorela, as revised and performed in 2021 as a radio broadcast. Aliza Moran looks at The Last Christmas / La Ultima Navidad, performed bilingually by Cazateatro in Memphis, Tennessee. The book reviews in this issue all attend to studies of performance and Indigenous peoples. Taken together, the books in review in this issue cover considerable ground, literally and figuratively, from Mexico City to Wisconsin, USA, and from Pre-Columbian Aztec-Nahua civilization to today’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. In surveying these different books, this issue’s review authors—Emily Goodell, Guillermo Avilés-Rodríguez, Neal Anderson Hebert, Sarah Alice Campbell, and Andrew Gibb examine Indigenous philosophy and epistemology, colonial history, tourism, and performative representation.We are entering the third year of global pandemic, or leaving the second year, depending on the point from which a person chooses to look at it. We at Ecumenica express hope for a year that is more free of this threat to our common health. Acknowledging what the pandemic has revealed about all of us, we hope for a year that is more open to performance and to religious practice that renews our global consciousness and our respectful regard for each other as interdependent individuals. 

Amit Assa

Papers

The role of alexithymia and autistic traits in predicting quality of life in an online sample

The role of alexithymia and autistic traits in predicting quality of life in an online sample

Letter from the Editor