SMAARTS

Interviews Study

This page contains more information about the interviews study, including what type of people we’re looking to take part, and what exactly will happen if you decide to get involved.

Who can take part?

We are looking for people who have self-diagnosed as being autistic and/or having ADHD, particularly those who have interacted with content on social media about being autistic or having ADHD, or who have used social media as a tool during the self-identification process.

In this scenario, self-diagnosed means that you first realised you were autistic and/or had ADHD yourself. Other people may have suggested this – like a parent, teacher, doctor, friend etc – but it was you that pursued this possibility and started exploring it in more depth. Similarly, you would have decided to start self-identifying as autistic and/or having ADHD, instead of first being told this “officially” by someone else.

If you have – since your self-diagnosis – now been to see a doctor or other clinician and have received a formal diagnosis, you are still welcome to take part. However, you do not need to have received a formal/official diagnosis of autism and/or ADHD.

It is also important that the people we talk to were influenced about the possibility of being autistic or having ADHD because of things they had seen on social media. We are really interested in how the internet, and social media specifically, help with the process of self-diagnosis, so it’s important for these people to be able to talk about their social media use. If you are self-diagnosed you might have done some offline research – read books, spoken to people who are knowledgeable about this etc – but if the majority of your exploration of your neurodivergence took place offline, this study isn’t suited to your experiences.

Other than having self-diagnosed as autistic or having ADHD, the only requirements are that:

• you are at least 18 years old
• you are UK-based
• you can communicate verbally in English

What will I do?

If you choose to take part, you will participate in a one-to-one interview with the lead researcher (Ruth).

• The interview will most likely take place on Zoom; there will be no requirement for you to have your camera on during the session if you would prefer to keep it off, and you can change your mind as the interview goes on. Participants will also be given the choice of whether they would like to use the closed captioning feature of Zoom throughout.
• The interview will be scheduled to last for an hour – this is to try and ensure we’ve spoken about everything that might be relevant. This might sound like a long time to be talking about yourself but, in my experience of conducting research like this in the past, a lot of people actually find they want to keep going beyond the hour-mark, and we’ll always try to accommodate this.
• The purpose of the interview is to explore the self-diagnosis process, especially in relation to social media’s role in helping with this. There are no set questions – you are free to talk about the experiences that are meaningful to you – but the interviewer (Ruth) will have some question prompts if you are finding it hard to think of something to say.
• The interview might start with a very general question, for example ‘can you tell me about what it was like to self-diagnose as neurodivergent?’, or ‘what has the process of neurodivergent self-diagnosis been like for you?’, or ‘how did you come to realise your neurodivergence?’.
• Throughout, the interviewer will respond to the things that you say, and ask questions like ‘can you explain what that was like?’, or ‘can you tell me more about that?’, or ‘can you remember what it was like to experience that for the first time?’.
• The interview will be recorded to allow for verbatim (word-for-word) transcription of the conversation; this will then be anonymised – removing all identifiable personal details from it – and the audio recording will be deleted.

If you would like to find out more, you can email Ruth at: ruth.leiser@strath.ac.uk

For more detailed information about taking part – including an audio version of the document – please download the participant information sheet:

If you would like to register interest to take part in an interview, please fill out the survey here