Using State Administrative Data to Examine Aspects of Autistic Adult Life: A Comparative Analysis of Identification, Voting, Marriage, and Parenting

Background: Existing outcomes research on autistic adulthood focuses primarily on certain aspects of adult life (e.g., employment) and is limited by methods that are often not representative of whole populations. In the current study, we aimed to use available state administrative data to examine frequencies of receiving state identification, voting, marriage/partnership, and parenting. Methods: In this cross-sectional, population-based study, we accessed Utah state administrative data for 7404 autistic adults born from 1970 to 2002 and matched 1:3 to non-autistic adults ( N = 22,213). We identified proportions of documentation of ever achieving each outcome (state identification, voting, marriage/partnership, parenting) and differences by group, sex, race, ethnicity, and co-occurring intellectual disability. Results: Autistic adults were less likely to have state identification (54.9% vs. 97%, p < 0.001) and to vote (39.4% vs. 51.9%, p < 0.001). However, among only those who had state identification, autistic adults were more likely to vote (55.2% vs. 53.1%, p < 0.05). Autistic males were more likely than autistic females to have state identification and equally likely to vote. Autistic females were more likely than males to be married/partnered and to have offspring. We also observed that married/partnered autistic adults were more likely to divorce than married/partnered non-autistic adults (21.0% vs. 6.1%, p < 0.001). When they had offspring, autistic adults had slightly fewer children on average than non-autistic adults (1.69 vs. 2.00, p < 0.001). There were also racial and ethnic group differences among autistic adults across outcomes. In a subset of the data, individuals with co-occurring intellectual disability were less likely than other autistic Utahns to achieve each studied outcome. Conclusion: We found significant differences, indicating that autistic adults are less engaged in multiple aspects of adulthood than their non-autistic peers. Findings point to the need for efforts to better support autistic adult self-determination and to address barriers to achieving the studied outcomes, when desired by autistic individuals.