Resilience has been depicted as a key characteristic in the promotion of mental health in the face of stress and adversity. Despite high levels of stress encountered in the autistic population, resilience studies remain scarce. Using data from an Australian longitudinal adult study, this study explored the inter-relationships between trait resilience, coping, and mental health in a sample of autistic adults (N = 78). In particular, we examined the relationship between resilience and use of coping strategies, and the potential mediating role of coping strategies in the relationship between resilience and mental health outcomes. Our findings suggested that increased use of engagement coping (e.g., problem-solving, positive appraisal) and decreased use of disengagement coping (e.g., self-blame, being in denial) strategies were associated with higher levels of resilience. Further, mediation analysis results suggest that disengagement coping mediated the associations between resilience and all three mental health outcomes (i.e., depression, anxiety, and well-being), while engagement coping strategies mediated the relationship between resilience and well-being only. Our results illustrate that coping strategies may be an important mechanism in explaining the resilience-mental health relationship in autistic adults, highlighting the importance of considering stress-related constructs together (i.e., trait resilience and coping) when addressing support and intervention options for mental health difficulties in the autistic adult population.

中文翻译：

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自闭症成人的特质韧性、应对策略和心理健康结果之间的相互关系

在面对压力和逆境时，韧性被描述为促进心理健康的一个关键特征。尽管自闭症人群面临着很大的压力，但韧性研究仍然很少。本研究使用澳大利亚纵向成人研究的数据，探讨了自闭症成人样本中特质韧性、应对能力和心理健康之间的相互关系（N = 78）。特别是，我们研究了复原力与应对策略的使用之间的关系，以及应对策略在复原力与心理健康结果之间的关系中的潜在中介作用。我们的研究结果表明，更多地使用参与应对（例如，解决问题、积极评价）和减少使用脱离应对（例如，自责、否认）策略与更高水平的弹性相关。此外，中介分析结果表明，脱离应对调节了复原力与所有三种心理健康结果（即抑郁、焦虑和幸福感）之间的关联，而参与应对策略仅调节了复原力与幸福感之间的关系。