Gender Identity in Autism: Sex Differences in Social Affiliation with Gender Groups.
Kate Cooper, Laura G E Smith, Ailsa J Russell
PMID 29705922WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults felt less attached to gender groups and viewed them less positively than controls.
Autistic females felt less attached than autistic males, unlike controls.
Key findings
01Autistic participants reported lower attachment to their gender group (4.18 vs 5.48 on a 7-point scale) and lower positive feelings about it (17.98 vs 20.93 on an eight-item measure) than typically developing controls.
02Participants whose gender identity did not match their birth sex reported lower attachment to their gender group (3.42 vs 5.09 on a 7-point scale) and lower positive feelings about it (15.27 vs 20.17 on an eight-item measure) than participants whose gender identity matched their birth sex.
03Within the autism group, females reported lower attachment to their gender group than males (4.01 vs 4.33 on a 7-point scale), while typically developing females reported higher attachment than typically developing males (5.61 vs 5.31).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Participants reported their autism diagnosis, and the researchers did not verify it, so some diagnoses may have been inaccurate. The average age of autism diagnosis was in early adulthood, and the sample had unusually high rates of gender and sexual orientation diversity and mental health problems, which the authors describe as suggestive of selection bias. Mental health diagnoses differed between autistic and typically developing participants, and the authors note this may be related to differences in rates of gender dysphoria. The gender-group measures left the term gender group open to interpretation, so it is unclear which group transitioning participants were thinking about. The study did not measure psychological well-being, so it cannot show that lower gender-group feelings caused distress.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autism causes gender incongruence, lower attachment to gender groups, or poor mental health. The study reports associations from self-report surveys, did not verify autism diagnoses, and did not measure psychological well-being.