Psychosexual Functioning of Cognitively-able Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Compared to Typically Developing Peers: The Development and Testing of the Teen Transition Inventory- a Self- and Parent Report Questionnaire on Psychosexual Functioning.
Linda P Dekker, Esther J M van der Vegt, Jan van der Ende and 5 others
PMID 28299510WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents with autism reported more difficulty making and being accepted by friends and lower self-esteem and social competence.
Parents also reported less sexual experience and more inappropriate sexualized behavior than typically developing peers.
Key findings
01Adolescents with ASD showed more difficulty with friendship skills and peer acceptance than typically developing peers on both self-report and parent-report.
02Adolescents with ASD reported lower self-esteem and perceived social competence, and parents reported lower psychosexual knowledge.
03Parent and adolescent reports differed for sexual/intimate behavior: parent reports showed significant group differences, self reports did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The questionnaire was built for this study and has not been fully validated or tested against other measures. The sample was too small to confirm the questionnaire structure. The ASD group was mostly cognitively able, so findings may not apply to adolescents with more intellectual disability. The ASD group had far fewer females than the typically developing group, so gender differences are hard to separate. Parent and adolescent reports did not always agree, especially for sexual behavior and body image. The inappropriate sexualized behavior scale was weak, and most adolescents showed little such behavior. The study used many comparisons with a strict correction, so some real differences may have been missed.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Sophia Children's Hospital Fund and Academische Werkplaats Autisme. The supplied text does not report author conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the questionnaire as a validated diagnostic tool or the parent-reported differences as proof that adolescents with ASD have more inappropriate sexual behavior. The TTI was newly developed, the inappropriate behavior scale did not hang together well, most adolescents showed little such behavior, and adolescent self-report showed no significant differences in sexual/intimate behavior.