Partnering with Community to Study Loneliness and Belonging and Unmet Needs in People with Autism

May 15, 2026

In the early 2000s, around the time Henry Fellows Moss was born, Ariel Cascio became interested in studying autism.

A few years later, when Cascio was early in her studies and Moss was 3 or 4 years old, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a former diagnosis equivalent to what now is called autism level one.

The two had no way of knowing it then, but Moss and Cascio, PhD, an anthropologist and assistant professor in the College of Human Medicine’s Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, eventually would partner in a study to overcome the stigma, loneliness, and isolation that many autistic people endure. Previous studies have found that belonging fosters physical and psychological wellbeing, while loneliness damages it.

“That medical label can be stigmatizing,” Cascio said. “Are other people treating them differently because they have this label? Some might say, ‘I’m autistic. This is who I am. This is the way I was born. This is how my brain works.’”

As a young boy, Moss began to sense he was different, dealing with what he now calls “a communication mismatch.” For example, he said, when someone expresses distress over something that has upset them, he typically responds by saying something similar had happened to him. A person who has autism would take that as an expression of sympathy, he said, while a person who does not have autism might be offended, thinking he is making it about himself.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 2023, after many of his friends had moved away, Moss felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness and suffered from “autistic burnout,” extreme mental and physical exhaustion from trying to adapt to an allistic, or non-autistic, world.

“I knew I had to do something for myself and others,” he said.

That’s when he and his mother, Karen Moss, founded the Delian Club, a nonprofit organization for autistic adults to socialize and share their intellectual, artistic, philosophical, scientific, and other interests without the stress of trying to conform with the larger community.

A retreat the Delian Club organized for autistic people in 2025 offered the opportunity for Moss and Cascio to collaborate on a study of how to overcome the loneliness and isolation many experience. Those who attended were asked to fill out survey forms provided by Cascio, who later conducted interviews with some participants and a follow-up survey six months after the retreat.

In a second study, in partnership with the Full Spectrum Agency for Autistic Adults, Cascio is helping conduct a similar survey of autistic Michigan residents ages 13 and older to understand their experiences and what they need to improve their lives. This research has been supported by the MSU Community-Engaged Research Fellows Program, the MSU Discretionary Funding Initiative, and the MSU Diversity Research Launch Awards Program.

“So much of what is known about autism is defined in medical terms by people who are not themselves autistic,” said Katie Oswald, president of the Full Spectrum Agency for Autistic Adults, formed to foster independence and build community for autistic adults. She said she hopes Cascio’s study “can lead to deeper understanding of autism in society that allows us to break down some of the stigma and have more acceptance.”

The goal, Cascio said, “is to understand how we can all get along, how belonging works so we can foster a sense of belonging.”

Moss said he appreciates that Cascio is studying autism not as a defect but as a different neurotype.

“She is approaching the autistic community as an anthropologist to understand a different culture,” he said. “She is not motivated by a desire to alter or ‘fix’ us. She is legitimizing us as we are.”

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