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Hobbies in Adults with ASD: An Exploratory Descriptive Analysis
Hobbies make up an integral aspect of peoples’ everyday lives. In neuro-typical individuals these activities foster social relationships, increase positive emotions, increase skill and knowledge acquisition, and generally improve quality of life (Brajsa-Zganec & Merkas, 2011). Unfortunately, almost no research exists examining the nature of interests and hobbies in adults with ASD. Two studies suggested that adults with ASD engage in interests that are more “systemizing” than those of neuro-typical controls (Caldwell-Harris & Jordan, 2013; Jordan & Caldwell-Harris, 2012). However both studies used the Cambridge University Obsessions Questionnaire to either elicit or classify responses, potentially constraining the breadth of possible responses. Given the lack of empirical data on the interests and hobbies of adults with ASD, in order to gain a full understanding it is important to have adults with ASD identify their interests and hobbies without a priori structuring of response categories in a manner that reflect researchers’ conceptualizations.
Objectives:
This study will describe the interests and hobbies of a sample of community-based, high-functioning adults with ASD. Understanding of the nature these interests and hobbies can lead to their integration into therapeutic programs for improving the communication, vocational and social skills of these individuals.
Methods:
Participants were 397 individuals between the ages of 21 and 73 years (M=37.2) who met a conservative cut off score of 32 on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (Woodbury-Smith, Robinson, Wheelwright & Baron-Cohen, 2005) and completed an online survey. Participants were asked, via an open-ended question, to indicate their top five hobbies/ interests. Participants’ hobbies were coded into six categories: Cognitive (e.g., video gaming; WWII history; reading), Social (e.g., my children; autism advocacy; sex), Physical (e.g., soccer; weight-lifting; walking), Passive Entertainment (e.g., listening to the radio; Japanese animation), Domestic (e.g., gardening; cooking; hobby farming) and Music/Cultural (e.g., composing music; going to the theatre). Category construction was based on previous research and overarching themes in the data.
Results:
First, we determined the number of hobbies participants identified. Of the 397 participants, 1% identified as having no hobbies, 23.4% identified hobbies fitting into only one category, 38.5% identified hobbies fitting into two categories, 28% identified hobbies fitting into three categories, 6.8% identified hobbies fitting into four categories, 0.8% identified hobbies fitting into five categories and 2.5% of participants indicated no hobbies or did not respond. Next we determined the relative frequency of the various categories. The most frequent type of hobby/interest reported was Cognitive (96.9%) followed by Physical (32.7%) and Music/Cultural (32.7%), Passive (22.5%), Domestic (20.2%) and Social (13.6%).
Conclusions:
The results demonstrate that interests are broader than typically conceptualized. That is, although many participants reported highly specific interests (e.g., geodesic domes; collecting 78 rpms records), many also reported a large number reflecting typical interests (e.g., snowboarding, reading, watching TV). These findings most likely reflect this study’s open response format as well as the general focus on hobbies/interests as opposed to special interests. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.