Table 2.
Activities reported to worsen emotions/moods of autistic adults.
| Most frequent subthemes (≥ 5% mentions) | Sample extract from interviews | |
|---|---|---|
| Increase in | ||
| Negative valence-high arousal, e.g., stressed, angry, frustrated, worried, annoyed 175 mentions |
Lack of or little control over the dog (36; 20.6%) Sensory related (32; 18.3%) Dog sick or injured (15; 8.6%) Maintenance of dog (12; 6.9%) Unruly behaviours (10; 5.7%) |
"If she's barking at the cat in the garden or something, that doesn't bother me, but if she's right next to me and there's no warning, and she just barks, I burst sometimes into tears or I just jump by and my whole body goes into like some kind of spasm. It's just intense stress" P1 |
| Negative valence-low arousal, e.g., sad, tired, low, depressed 31 mentions |
Lack of or little control over the dog (5; 16.1%) Death of dog, possibility of dog dying (4; 12.9%) Reduced dog interaction (3; 9.7%) Sensory related (3; 9.7%) Fearful/aggressive behaviours (2; 6.5%) Dog playing (2; 6.5%) |
"I'm very conscious of the fact that they [dogs] are not always going to be around. And it upsets me looking at them knowing that I've only got a limited amount of time with them. It's really sad, distraught to be honest. I want to cry if I think about it." P21 |
| Decrease in | ||
| Positive valence-high arousal, e.g., happy, excited, joyful, fun 2 mentions |
Punishing the dog physically or verbally (1; 50.0%) Interactions on social media (1; 50.0%) |
"My Bulldog is quite skinny, he's quite fit and lots of other dogs can be quite overweight. And I posted a photo of him on social media and I got absolutely slated […] that does necessarily knock my confidence, obviously" P27 |
| Positive valence-low arousal, e.g., calm, relaxed, peaceful 3 mentions |
Unruly behaviours (2; 66.7%) Dog playing (1; 33.3%) |
"Sometimes you just want a little bit of peaceful quiet to read a book or watch your favourite TV programme. Then he likes to come along and nibble away at your feet and steal your shoes and runs away with them. He is a puppy, so when you want to have a piece of quiet, he's not thinking the same as you." P36 |
The numbers next to the subthemes indicate the number of times (and percentage) a subtheme was reported to generate the respective well-being outcome.