Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Director

Ian M. Katz

Committee Member

Nastassia M. Savage

Committee Member

Laura C. Chezan

Abstract

This scoping review takes a career-span approach to the experiences of autistic people at work. Using Super’s (1994) life-span, life-space theory as a framework, I divided the literature into five career phases: Growth, Exploration, Establishment, Maintenance, and Disengagement. In each phase, I reviewed the challenges and facilitators that autistic people face, highlighting themes that have strong support in the literature, and areas that need further examination in future research. Additionally, I argue that Super’s career framework is not the most parsimonious way to describe the career trajectories of autistic individuals and propose modifications to the framework to better represent their experiences. I also discuss the importance of examining the experiences of those with low-severity autism diagnoses separately from those with high-severity autism diagnoses, as their reasons for working are different. Finally, I discuss theoretical and practical implications, and propose avenues for future research.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/w63d-3n94

ISBN

9798382773568

ORCID

0000-0003-0710-6679

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