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Nielsen Brain & Behavior Lab

Physical Activity is Associated with Suicidal Thoughts in Autistic and Socially Anxious Individuals

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Introduction
Methodology
Results
Closure
References

Suicidal ideation and suicidal tendencies are a public health issue (CDC, 2022). Research has been done analyzing these public health issues specifically, lessening one's chances of attempting/dying by suicide. However, most of the research that has been done on suicidality covers a neurotypical population. Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability (CDC, 2022) and for individuals that are diagnosed with ASD who have suicidal ideation or suicidal tendencies, it has been harder to see how protective physical activity is due to the lack of research done. It has been found that young adults who have ASD lack in physical activity more than young adults who do not have any disability (Nichols et al., 2019). Individuals with ASD may indicate a lack in day-to-day physical activity. This study hypothesizes how physical activity can be a significant protective factor against suicidality for those within a population for either social anxiety and ASD.

The participants recruited for this study came through flyers, advertisements, and also the help of Brigham Young University’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The data collected comes from MetricWire, which is where participants were able to respond to questions everyday throughout their participation. Within this study, we had an inclusion criterion that participants had to meet in order to participate. The control group of this study are individuals from a neurotypical population and are non-suicidal that were recruited as well. The study was designed to last 6 months with optional 3-month extension if the participant met criteria of answering 75% of surveys that were sent via Metric Wire.

  • Fig. 1 Physical activity, in general, was found to be a significant protective factor for only the socially anxious group than for those in the autistic population. (ASD and Social Anxiety)
    Fig. 2 There are select individuals whose physical activity was more of a risk factor than a protective factor. These individuals need to be investigated further (possibly transference of arousal).
  • Fig 2. shows the correlational effects physical activity has on suicide composite scores for each individual in either the Autism or Social Anxiety groups.

From this study, it can be seen that physical activity is marginally protective for the socially anxious population than the ASD population. Additionally, there were several limitations that have been considered when this study was conducted. Some limitations include a small sample size and non-compliance of the clinical population. These findings must be replicated to account for the limitations in order to establish a connection. Replicating these findings would look into the individuals whose physical activity is a risk factor than a protective factor for suicidality in order to establish the results. This research is of the utmost importance because it deals with people’s lives.