Loneliness in autism and Its association with anxiety and depression: a systematic review with meta-analyses

Abstract

Objectives

This systematic review aimed to quantify differences in loneliness levels between autistic and neurotypical samples and investigate the association between loneliness and mental health in autistic individuals.

Methods

Three meta-analyses were conducted. Studies were methodologically appraised using established tools.

Results

Overall, 39 studies were included. The majority of these achieved moderate methodological quality ratings. The primary meta-analysis (N = 23) found autistic samples reported higher loneliness compared with neurotypical samples (Hedges’ g = .89). The meta-analyses on the associations between loneliness and anxiety (N = 14) and depression (N = 11) in autistic samples found significant pooled correlations (r = .29 and r = .48, respectively).

Conclusions

This review highlights numerous limitations within current autism and loneliness research. Nevertheless, loneliness in autism merits targeted clinical and research attention.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Hymas, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3884-5749 Badcock, J.C. Milne, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0127-0718
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords:	Autism; Loneliness; Anxiety; Depression
Dates:	Accepted: 6 June 2022 Published (online): 16 July 2022 Published: March 2024
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2024 10:45
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2024 10:45
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-022-00330-w
Related URLs:	Author

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Loneliness in autism and Its association with anxiety and depression: a systematic review with meta-analyses

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