Behavioural phenotypes of autism in autistic and nonautistic gender clinic-referred youth and their caregivers.
Aimilia Kallitsounaki, Matthew C Fysh, David M Williams and 2 others
PMID 41169016WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic gender clinic-referred youth show the same autism traits as autistic cisgender peers, and their caregivers show the same elevated autism rates.
Only one observation measure found fewer repetitive behaviours in the gender-referred group. Treat autism features in gender-diverse youth as genuine.
Key findings
01Autistic gender clinic-referred youth did not differ from autistic cisgender youth in early or current autism traits on parent questionnaires or the ADI-R interview.
02Caregivers of autistic youth reported significantly more autism traits and had higher diagnosis rates than caregivers of nonautistic youth, regardless of whether their child was gender clinic-referred or cisgender.
03Autistic gender clinic-referred youth showed fewer restricted and repetitive behaviours on the observational BOSA measure than autistic cisgender youth, though this was the only significant difference found.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was highly educated and predominantly White British, with IQs above 70, so findings may not apply to non-English speakers or those with intellectual disability. Gender-diverse participants were all clinic-referred, which may not represent the broader spectrum of gender-diverse youth who do not seek specialist services. The BOSA is a brief virtual adaptation of the ADOS-2 and may capture fewer nuances in repetitive behaviours than a full in-person assessment. Nine participants completed the IQ measure without a researcher present, which may have affected scores.
Declared interests
Funded by an Economic and Social Research Council UK grant. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not dismiss autism features in gender-diverse youth as a result of minority stress. Nonautistic gender clinic-referred youth did not show elevated autism traits compared with nonautistic cisgender youth, and caregivers of autistic gender-diverse youth showed the same familial autism loading as caregivers of cisgender autistic youth.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →