Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) comprises persistent deficits in (1) social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Due to these symptoms, ASD is associated with a significant impairment of quality of life. Identifying patients’ unique resources is crucial for several psychotherapeutic concepts and is a mechanism of action for the therapeutic process. Such a resource is the religiosity and spirituality of patients. However, a concrete quantitative investigation of religiosity and spirituality in a sample of adults fulfilling the criteria of ASD is missing. Thus, a cross-sectional study to collect quantitative data of the spiritual needs of 201 adults with ASD was conducted. The results of the study showed that people with ASD generally have spiritual needs and use religious and spiritual practices. Participants reported spiritual needs and spiritual and religious practices; the analyses showed that these aspects are associated with several measures of quality of life. However, the results of the study also showed that religious and spiritual practices and needs are less pronounced compared with other samples.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
Asperger H (1944) Die “Autistischen Psychopathen” im Kindesalter. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr 117:76–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01837709
Barger BD, Campbell JM, McDonough JD (2013) Prevalence and onset of regression within autism spectrum disorders: a meta-analytic review. J Autism Dev Disord 43(4):817–828. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1621-x
Bayat M (2007) Evidence of resilience in families of children with autism. J Intellect Disabil Res 71(9):702–714. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.00960.x
Bonelli RM, Koenig HG (2013) Mental disorders, religion and spirituality 1990 to 2010: a systematic evidence-based review. J Relig Health 52(2):657–673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9691-4
Büssing A, Frick E (2015) Psychosoziale und spirituelle Bedürfnisse chronisch Kranker. In: Büssing A, Surzykiewicz J, Zimowski Z (eds) Dem Gutes tun, der leidet. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44279-1_1
Büssing A, Recchia DR (2016) Spiritual and non-spiritual needs among German soldiers and their relation to stress perception, PTDS symptoms, and life satisfaction: results from a structural equation modeling approach. J Relig Health 55(3):747–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0073-y
Büssing A, Fischer J, Haller A, Heusser P, Ostermann T, Matthiessen PF (2009) Validation of the brief multidimensional life satisfaction scale in patients with chronic diseases. Eur J Med Res 14(4):171–177. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-783X-14-4-171
Büssing A, Balzat H-J, Heusser P (2010) Spiritual needs of patients with chronic pain diseases and cancer – validation of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire. Eur J Med Res 15(6):266–273. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-783X-15-6-266
Büssing A, Reiser F, Michalsen A, Baumann K (2012) Engagement of patients with chronic diseases in spiritual and secular forms of practice: results with the shortened SpREUK-P SF17 questionnaire. IMCJ 11(1):28–38
Büssing A, Franczak K, Surzykiewicz J (2016) Frequency of spiritual/religious practices in Polish patients with chronic diseases: validation of the Polish version of the SpREUK-P questionnaire. Religions 55(1):67–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9967-3
Büssing A, Rodrigues Recchia D, Koenig H, Baumann K, Frick E (2018) Factor structure of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) in persons with chronic diseases, elderly and healthy individuals. Religions 9(1):13–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9010013
Coulthard P, Fitzgerald M (1999) In God we trust? Organised religion and personal beliefs as resources and coping strategies, and their implications for health in parents with a child on the autistic spectrum. Ment Health Relig Cult 2(1):19–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674679908406329
Crespi B, Dinsdale N, Read S, Hurd P (2019) Spirituality, dimensional autism, and schizotypal traits: the search for meaning. PLoS ONE 14(3):e0213456. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213456
Cwik JC, Büssing A (2019) Spiritualität und Religiosität und ihr Zusammenhang mit Lebenszufriedenheit bei Personen mit Autismus-Spektrums-Störung. Spiritual Care 8(3):251–261. https://doi.org/10.1515/spircare-2018-0096
Das S, Das B, Nath K, Dutta A, Bora P, Hazarika M (2017) Impact of stress, coping, social support, and resilience of families having children with autism: a North East India-based study. Asian J Psychiatr 28:133–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2017.03.040
Deeley Q (2009) Cognitive style, spirituality, and religious understanding: the case of autism. J Relig Disabil Health 13(1):77–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228960802581479
Ekas NV, Whitman TL, Shivers C (2009) Religiosity, spirituality, and socioemotional functioning in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 39(5):706–719. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0673-4
Fiedler P (2011) Ressourcenorientierte Psychotherapie. In: Frank R (ed) Therapieziel Wohlbefinden. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13760-0_2
Fisch GS (2012) Nosology and epidemiology in autism: classification counts. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 160 C(2):91–103. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.c.31325
Glavas A, Jors K, Bössing A, Baumann K (2017) Spiritual needs of PTSD patients in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina: a quantitative pilot study. Psychiatr Danub 29(3):282–290. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2017.282
Grawe K, Donati R, Bernauer F (2001) Psychotherapie im Wandel: Von der Konfession zur Profession, 5th edn. Hogrefe, Göttingen
Gray DE (2006) Coping over time: the parents of children with autism. J Intellect Disabil Res 50(12):970–976. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00933.x
Haußmann A, Schäffeler N, Hautzinger M, Weyel B, Eigentler T, Zipfel S, Teufel M (2018) Religiöse/spirituelle Bedürfnisse und psychosoziale Belastung von Patienten mit malignem Melanom. TumorDiagnostik und Therapie 39:116–123. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0044-100824
Hills K, Clapton J, Dorsett P, Andersen K (2019) Spirituality in the context of nonverbal autism: a research process – analysis and findings. J Disabil Relig 23(4):365–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2019.1682104
Hofmann L (2011) Spirituelle oder religiöse Orientierung und deren Auswirkung auf die psychotherapeutische Tätigkeit. In: Büssing A, Kohls N (eds) Spiritualität transdisziplinär – Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen im Zusammenhang mit Gesundheit und Krankheit. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp 173–196
Hofmann L, Walach H (2011) Spirituality and religiosity in psychotherapy – a representative survey among German psychotherapists. Psychother Res 21(2):179–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2010.536595
Huws JC, Jones RSP, Ingledew DK (2016) Parents of children with autism using an email group: a grounded theory study. J Health Psychol 6(5):569–584. https://doi.org/10.1177/135910530100600509
Jegatheesan B (2013) An ethnographic study on religion, spirituality, and maternal influence on sibling relationships in a Muslim family with a child with autism. RDS Int J 9(1):5–19
Jegatheesan B, Miller PJ, Fowler SA (2010) Autism from a religious perspective: a study of parental beliefs in South Asian Muslim immigrant families. Focus Autism Other Dev Disabil 25(2):98–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357610361344
Jerusalem M, Schwarzer R (2014) Allgemeine Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung (SWE). Beschreibung der psychometrischen Skala. https://psycharchives.org/bitstream/20.500.12034/320/1/PT_9001003_SWE_Autorenbeschreibung.pdf. Accesses 17 Sept 2020
Kamp-Becker I, Schröder J, Remschmidt H, Bachmann CJ (2010) Health-related quality of life in adolescents and young adults with high functioning autism-spectrum disorder. GMS Psycho-Soc-Med 7.:Doc03. https://doi.org/10.3205/psm000065
Kanner L (1943) Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nerv Child 2:217–250
Kaye J, Raghavan SK (2002) Spirituality in disability and illness. J Relig Health 41:231–242. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020284819593
Kim SY, Bottema-Beutel K (2019) A meta regression analysis of quality of life correlates in adults with ASD. Res Autism Spectr Disord 63:23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2018.11.004
Kim YS, Fombonne E, Koh Y-J, Kim S-J, Cheon K-A, Leventhal BL (2014) A comparison of DSM-IV pervasive developmental disorder and DSM-5 autism spectrum disorder prevalence in an epidemiologic sample. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 53(5):500–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2013.12.021
Kuhaneck HM, Burroughs T, Wright J, Lemanczyk T, Darragh AR (2010) A qualitative study of coping in mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Phys Occup Ther Pediatr 30(4):340–350. https://doi.org/10.3109/01942638.2010.481662
Leiner DJ (2014) SoSci Survey (Version 2.4.00-i) [Computer Software].
Luther EH, Canham DL, Cureton VY (2005) Coping and social support for parents of children with autism. J Sch Nurs 21(1):40–47. https://doi.org/10.1622/1059-8405(2005)021[0040:cassfp]2.0.co;2
Mason D, McConachie H, Garland D, Petrou A, Rodgers J, Parr JR (2018) Predictors of quality of life for autistic adults. Autism Res 11(8):1138–1147. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1965
McDonald RP (1970) The theoretical foundations of principal factor analysis, canonical factor, and alpha factor analysis. Br J Math Stat Psychol 23(1):1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1970.tb00432.x
McDonald RP (1999) Test theory: a unified treatment. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ
Ouellette-Kuntz H, Coo H, Lam M, Breitenbach MM, Hennessey PE, Jackman PD, Lewis MES, Dewey D, Bernier FP, Chung AM (2014) The changing prevalence of autism in three regions of Canada. J Autism Dev Disord 44(1):120–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1856-1
Pandya SP (2018) Spirituality to build resilience in primary caregiver parents of children with autism spectrum disorders: a cross-country experiment. Int J Dev Disabil 64(1):53–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2016.1222722
Pfeifer S (2017) Religiöse Patienten und säkulare Therapeuten – ein ethisch-professionelles Spannungsfeld. Spiritual Care 6(1):21–29. https://doi.org/10.1515/spircare-2016-0123
Rew L, Wong YJ (2006) A systematic review of associations among religiosity/spirituality and adolescent health attitudes and behaviors. J Adolesc Health 38(4):433–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.02.004
Rutter M (2007) Incidence of autism spectrum disorders: changes over time and their meaning. Acta Paediatr 94(1):2–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2005.tb01779.x
Schnell T, Becker P (2007) Fragebogen zu Lebensbedeutung und Lebenssinn (LeBe). Hogrefe, Göttingen
Schwarzer R, Jerusalem M (1999) Skalen zur Erfassung von Lehrer- und Schülermerkmalen. Dokumentation der psychometrischen Verfahren im Rahmen der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung des Modellversuchs Selbstwirksame Schulen. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin
Shafranske EP, Malony HN (1990) Clinical psychologists’ religious and spiritual orientations and their practice of psychotherapy. Psychother Theory Res Pract Train 27(1):72–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.27.1.72
Shaked M (2005) The social trajectory of illness: autism in the ultraorthodox community in Israel. Soc Sci Med 61(10):2190–2200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.04.022
Sucharewa GJ (1926) Die schizoiden Psychopathien im Kindesalter. Monatsschr Psychiatr Neurol 60(3-4):235–247. https://doi.org/10.1159/000190478
Swinton J, Trevett C (2009) Religion and autism: initiating an interdisciplinary conversation. J Relig Disabil Health 13(1):2–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228960802606193
Tsai LY (2014) Impact of DSM-5 on epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder. Res Autism Spectr Disord 8(11):1454–1470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2014.07.016
Vieten C, Scammell S, Pilato R, Ammondson I, Pargament KI, Lukoff D (2013) Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychol Relig Spiritual 5(3):129–144. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032699
Visuri I (2012) Could everyone talk to god? A case study on Asperger’s syndrome, religion, and spirituality. J Relig Disabil Health 16(4):352–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228967.2012.731888
Willutzki U (2000) Ressourcenorientierung in der Psychotherapie – eine “neue” Perspektive? In: Hermer M (ed) Psychotherapeutische Perspektiven am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. DGVT-Verlag, Tübingen, pp 193–212
Willutzki U, Teismann T (2013) Ressourcenaktivierung in der Psychotherapie. Hogrefe, Göttingen
Wong YJ, Rew L, Slaikeu KD (2006) A systematic review of recent research on adolescent religiosity/spirituality and mental health. Issues Ment Health Nurs 27(2):161–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840500436941
World Health Organization (2017) ICD-11 beta draft. https://icd.who.int/dev11/l-m/en.
World Health Organization (2018) ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics. https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f437815624. Accesses 17 Sept 2020
Zahorodny W, Shenouda J, Howell S, Rosato NS, Peng B, Mehta U (2014) Increasing autism prevalence in metropolitan New Jersey. Autism 18(2):117–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361312463977
Zimmer Z, Jagger C, Chiu C-T, Ofstedal MB, Rojo F, Saito Y (2016) Spirituality, religiosity, aging and health in global perspective: a review. SSM-Population Health 2:373–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.04.009
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all participants who took part in the study that was the basis for this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cwik, J.C. (2021). Spiritual Needs of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In: Büssing, A. (eds) Spiritual Needs in Research and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70139-0_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70139-0_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70138-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70139-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)