Background

While research has consistently highlighted the usefulness of narrative texts for social development, this has not been fully explored with autistic adults. It has long been assumed that autistic individuals lack the social understanding to contemplate fiction, preferring non-fiction. This study aimed to explore the self-reported reading habits of autistic adults compared to neurotypical adults, accounting for higher education demands.

Methods

A qualitative design was used, with 43 participants (22 autistic; 21 neurotypical) completing a reading habits questionnaire and subsequent semi-structured interview.

Results

Neurotypical participants tended to prefer fiction, with autistic participants showing no preference between fiction and non-fiction. Four themes were identified from interview data (1) reading material choices; (2) text investment; (3) in-text social understanding; and (4) reading as a social learning device. Both groups reported evidence of empathising, perspective-taking and social understanding while reading. The autistic group additionally reported social learning outcomes from reading.

Discussion

Findings contradict prior assumptions that autistic individuals lack the social understanding required by fiction. Instead, findings show that social benefits of narrative texts extend to autistic readers, providing important social learning experiences.

中文翻译：

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自闭症成人与神经典型成人的阅读习惯分析以及对未来干预措施的影响

背景

虽然研究一直强调叙事文本对社会发展的有用性，但这并没有在自闭症成年人身上得到充分探索。长期以来，人们一直认为自闭症患者缺乏思考小说的社会理解力，更喜欢非小说。本研究旨在探讨自闭症成年人与神经典型成年人相比的自我报告阅读习惯，并考虑到高等教育需求。

方法

使用定性设计，43 名参与者（22 名自闭症患者；21 名神经型患者）完成了阅读习惯问卷和随后的半结构化访谈。

结果

神经典型的参与者倾向于喜欢小说，自闭症参与者在小说和非小说之间没有表现出偏好。从访谈数据中确定了四个主题（1）阅读材料选择；（2）文字投资；(3) 文本中的社会理解；(4) 阅读作为一种社交学习工具。两组都报告了在阅读时产生同理心、换位思考和社会理解的证据。自闭症组还报告了阅读的社交学习成果。

讨论

调查结果与先前的假设相矛盾，即自闭症患者缺乏小说所需的社会理解。相反，研究结果表明，叙事文本的社会效益扩展到自闭症读者，提供重要的社会学习经验。