Content of review 1, reviewed on January 24, 2024

I highly appreciate the authors for attending to an urgently needed topic in the area of autism research and psycho(patho)logy broadly. The manuscript pointed out important observations in the topic of autistic well-being, such as unclear and uncritical definitions and the need for attending to autistic perspectives. Although this manuscript is not an empirical article, a fair Commentary or Critique should include seminal and significant works in the field that can sufficiently inform the latest development of the topic. The manuscript in its current form does not adequately cover the breadth and depth of this issue.

Autistic wellbeing is not an entirely new subject of inquiry in the field. Quite a number of both conceptual analysis, systematic reviews, and empirical studies are published in the literature, many of which have already begun to address the authors' concerns, or at least provided detailed critiques. The subject matter itself also is a fairly complicated one, which would warrant a more nuanced approach to address its intersectional complexities. For example, wellbeing in autistic individuals with lower or higher support needs can be distinctively different. Likewise, children and adults would entail very different formulations. In addition, this manuscript did not include the authors' positionality or theoretical paradigm, thus rendering the quality of the arguments difficult to assess.

The authors also mentioned a "mixed methods systematic review" without providing the details. It would be important for the authors to clearly elaborate the unique or new contribution of their review to the field on top of other similar reviews.

Source

    © 2024 the Reviewer.

References

    M., D., S., P., B., H., G., H. L. 2024. A critical reflection on definitions of autistic well-being. Brain and Behavior.