Update: We have finished interviewing! Thank you to everyone who participated and expressed interest in the study.
Thank you to everyone who participated in an interview and shared our recruitment call! We are thrilled by the response to our study and appreciate the many insights folks have shared with us about their experiences with “eloping” (running away, wandering, departing suddenly, etc.).
We interviewed 28 participants from 6 provinces, including Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and the Maritimes!
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to do an interview with us. We are so grateful for your generosity and openness in sharing your experiences. We're excited to begin analyzing the interviews and will post updates here as we have them.
We are no longer recruiting interview participants, but we will share future calls for participants here!
UPDATE: We have finalized our co-researcher team and are not looking for additional co-researchers at this time. Thanks so much for your interest in this project!
Thanks to all who took our survey!
Our research team wanted to hear from Autistic people about your experiences with leaving places -- and people really responded. We heard from over 200 people about their experiences of Autistic wandering, departure, running away, fleeing -- what the clinical research literature has often called "eloping". We are honoured that so many people shared their experiences with us. We will share our findings from this survey here and post all presentations and publications -- see the "presentations" tab.
Thanks to everyone who filled it out! Thanks also to all who disseminated the survey, including the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network and Autistics for Autistics Ontario.
Stay tuned -- we will be looking for more participants in the future!
Project Overview
When Autistic children or adults depart suddenly from supervised settings and relationships without permission or notice, this departure can be referred to as elopement. This project will address a gap in our knowledge of Autistic elopement that has excluded the perspectives of Autistic people themselves. It will characterize the factors that contribute to Autistic people’s decisions to elope and to understand their subjective experiences of elopement. This research will also generate knowledge about helpful and harmful responses to elopement and support the development of improved policies and practices that may be applied in contexts such as schools or interactions between first responders and Autistic people.
Objective 1 (O1): To learn what factors Autistic people report have influenced their decisions to elope and examine how who they are (demographics) and where they are (setting) can influence elopement. Our O1 research questions are: a) Are there commonalities in the factors that contribute to the decision to elope, or are they highly individual and contextual? b) How do Autistic people’s demographic identities (e.g., gender, race, age, class) relate to eloping? c) How does the setting Autistic people are in (e.g., classroom, group home, family home, public space) relate to eloping?
Objective 2 (O2): To investigate the meaning and impact of elopement for Autistic people using both narrative interviews and photovoice methods. Our O2 research questions are: a) What are Autistic people’s subjective experiences of elopement? b) What can Autistic people’s stories and images of elopement tell us about how elopement relates to identity, emotion, and well-being?
Objective 3 (O3): To characterize Autistic people’s experiences with others (e.g., first responders, family members, educators, service providers) during and after elopement, and to develop guidelines for improved policies and responses. Our O3 research questions are: a) What experiences have people had with first responders when they eloped, and when they returned? b) What experiences have people had with others, such as family members or teachers, when they eloped, and when they returned? c) What responses from others have been helpful, unhelpful, or harmful?
This project has received funding from a SSHRC - Insight Grant (2023-8), and ethics approval from the University of Waterloo Research Ethics Review Board, #45592, and the University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board, #H23-02932. There are four co-investigators on this grant: Trish Van Katwyk (Renison U. College/ University of Waterloo), Aimee Morrison (University of Waterloo), Edwin Ng (Renison . College/ University of Waterloo), and Tina Wilson (University of British Columbia).
Background
This project design follows the principles and practices of Participatory Action Research or PAR. PAR is a research methodology that directly involves the people who are most affected by the research topic throughout the research process, and that prioritizes the development of collective action that seeks to turn research findings into meaningful social change (Hagey, 1997; van Katwyck & Ashcroft, 2016). This project was proposed by a community member and has its roots in community interests and needs.
You can find any presentations from the project under the "presentations" tab.
Currently, a co-researcher team of nine people is working with the PI, research coordinator, and research assistant. Co-researchers are part of developing, disseminating, and analyzing the research. We are all committed to learning more from Autistic people about why they leave places and what has happened when they do this because we want to help improve things for Autistic people.
Contact PI Meg Gibson at margaret.gibson@uwaterloo.ca or research coordinator bridget livingtone at autistic.elopement.study@gmail.com if you are interested or have questions.