Resilience and strengths in the Black autism community in the United States: A scoping review.
Amber M Davis, Nicole A Telfer, Jonet Artis and 5 others
PMID 39385701WHAT IT FOUND
Black caregivers of autistic children rely heavily on advocacy, informal family networks, and spirituality to navigate systemic barriers.
No studies in this review centered the voices of Black autistic adults themselves, leaving their specific strengths and resilience strategies completely unknown.
Key findings
01Resilience factors among Black caregivers centered on familial advocacy, informal social support networks, and spiritual practices rather than formal institutional support.
02There is a complete absence of research examining the resilience and strengths of Black autistic individuals themselves, with all included studies focusing on caregivers or family members.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review found no studies that included the voices of Black autistic individuals, limiting the findings to caregiver perspectives only. The majority of included studies were qualitative, which prevents generalization to the broader Black autism community. Nine of the 28 studies were dissertations that had not undergone peer review, potentially affecting the methodological rigor of the evidence base. Many studies did not explicitly measure resilience, requiring the authors to infer resilience factors from broader findings.
Declared interests
None reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these findings reflect the lived experience of Black autistic adults. The review explicitly states that no studies centered Black autistic voices, so the identified resilience factors apply only to caregivers and families, not to the autistic individuals themselves.