Measuring autistic burnout: A psychometric validation of the AASPIRE Autistic Burnout Measure in autistic adults.

Participants were recruited mainly through social media, so people interested in the topic and late-diagnosed autistic adults were more likely to take part. The mean age at diagnosis was 25 years, so the findings may not apply to autistic adults diagnosed early. Most participants were Caucasian, cisgender and tertiary-educated, so ethnically and gender-diverse autistic adults and people with higher support needs were not well represented. The study included self-identified autistic adults, but the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire was not used to confirm clinical autism thresholds. Test-retest stability was checked over 12 months, which may be too long for burnout experiences that can vary from days to years. The burnout classification analysis used 96 participants and relied on one self-report question about current burnout, without a definition of autistic burnout. The study tested the 27-item ABM, not the 14-item version mentioned in the paper. The study did not test any treatment, so it cannot show that interventions for autistic burnout work.

The first author received an Australian Government Research Training Program stipend, and the senior author received a University of Western Australia start-up grant. One author was supported by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Do not read the ABM as a diagnostic test or as proof that a burnout treatment works. It is a self-report score, and the study did not test any intervention.