About this Study and Informed Consent

You are invited to take part in a research study about Stress and Coping Experiences among Autistic Adults. This form is part of a process called “informed consent” to allow you to understand this study before deciding whether to take part.

This study seeks a minimum of 100 volunteers who are:

· Adults over age 18.

· Autistic (self-diagnosis is valid).

This study is being conducted by a researcher named Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, PhD, who is a Faculty Member in the Walden University College of Psychology and Community Services. Dr. Bonura is conducting this study as an autistic researcher researching autism (she is a late-diagnosed Autistic woman and a mom of 2 autistic children).

Study Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to understand common stressors experienced by autistic adults, as well as the strategies for coping with stress autistic adults have tried, and in particular, which coping strategies autistic adults find useful in managing stress

Procedures:

This study will involve you completing the following steps:
· an online survey about stress and strategies for coping with stress. The survey may take you anywhere between 15 minutes and 1 hour to complete, depending on how much detail you want to provide in the open-response sections.

Here are some sample questions:

1. Do you use any of the following mindfulness-based strategies to cope with stress? (Check all that apply).
Yoga
Meditation
Tai chi / qi gong
Martial arts
Other (explain)

2. Do you use any of the following creative-based strategies to cope with stress? (Check all that apply).
Creative writing
Listening to music
Playing a musical instrument
Singing
Dance
Acting
Drawing or painting or related arts
Sculpture, crafting, or related arts
Sewing
Other (explain)

3. How do you use mindfulness-based strategies to cope with stress? (Open answer)

Voluntary Nature of the Study:

Research should only be done with those who freely volunteer. Everyone involved will respect your decision to join or not.

If you decide to join the study now, you can still change your mind later. You may stop at any time.

Risks and Benefits of Being in the Study:

Being in this study could involve some risk of the minor discomforts that can be encountered in daily life such as sharing sensitive information. With the protections in place, this study would pose minimal risk to your wellbeing.

This study offers no direct benefits to individual volunteers. The aim of this study is to benefit society by supporting understanding of the ways in which autistic adults experience stress and supporting the development of coping resources specially for autistic adults. Once the analysis is complete, the researcher will share the overall results by:

Publishing and/or presenting findings and results at academic conferences related to psychology and health services.

Sharing a summary of findings and results via the researchers’ website and social media. At the end of the survey, you will have the option to provide your email address, if you would like to receive a study summary.

Dr. Bonura is a Certified Yoga Therapist (with the International Association of Yoga Therapists) and an Experience-Registered Yoga Teacher (with the Yoga Alliance). She plans to use study findings to develop yoga, mindfulness, and creativity-based resources specifically for autistic adults.
Payment:

You will not receive cash payment for completing the survey.

As a thank you: Dr. Bonura is a Certified Yoga Therapist (with the International Association of Yoga Therapists) and an Experience-Registered Yoga Teacher (with the Yoga Alliance). She plans to use study findings to develop yoga, mindfulness, and creativity-based resources specifically for autistic adults. At the end of the survey, you will have the option to provide your email address, if you would like to receive access to these materials at no charge, as a thank you for your participation in the study.

Privacy:

The researcher is required to protect your privacy. Your identity will be kept confidential, within the limits of the law. The researcher will not share your identity or contact info with anyone else, unless court-ordered to share with authorities (very rare).” If you elect not to provide your email address at the end of the survey, then your participation will be completely anonymous and you will not be asked your name or contact information at any other time during your participation. The researcher will not use your personal information for any purposes outside of this research project. Also, the researcher will not include your name or anything else that could identify you in the study reports. If the researcher were to share this dataset with another researcher in the future, the dataset would contain no identifiers so this would not involve another round of obtaining informed consent. Data will be kept secure by storing the list of email addresses completely separate from all other data and using password protection on all data sets. Data will be kept for a period of at least 5 years, as required by the university.

Contacts and Questions:

You can ask questions of the researcher by email at Kimberlee.bonura@mail.waldenu.edu. If you want to talk privately about your rights as a participant or any negative parts of the study, you can call Walden University’s Research Participant Advocate at 612-312-1210. Walden University’s approval number for this study is 05-21-24-2668722. It expires on May 20, 2025.

You might wish to retain this consent form for your records. You may ask the researcher or Walden University for a copy at any time using the contact info above.

Question Title

* 1. OBTAINING YOUR CONSENT
If you feel you understand the study and wish to volunteer, please indicate your consent by clicking “I consent” to continue with the survey.

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