Sexual Knowledge, Experiences, and Pragmatic Language in Adults With and Without Autism: Implications for Sex Education.
Brooke H Kohn, Paige Vidal, Rachael Chiao and 2 others
PMID 35922688WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults reported fewer partnered sexual experiences but similar sexual knowledge accuracy compared to non-autistic adults.
They scored lower on pragmatic language skills when defining sexual terms, particularly in providing relevant information without redundancy. This suggests a gap in communicating existing knowledge effectively.
Key findings
01Autistic participants reported significantly fewer partnered sexual experiences than non-autistic participants, while solo sexual experiences and sex education rates were similar.
02There were no significant differences between autistic and non-autistic groups in perceived sexual health knowledge, sexual vocabulary accuracy, or recognition of sexual health facts.
03Autistic adults showed significantly lower pragmatic language skills in the Relevancy domain when defining sexual terms compared to non-autistic adults, indicating difficulty in providing sufficient but not redundant information.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The groups were not matched for age or sex; the non-autistic group was younger and had more female participants. The sample size for the autistic group was small (n=27). The study used newly developed, non-validated measures for sexual vocabulary and pragmatic language scoring. Pragmatic language was assessed only via written responses, which may not reflect verbal communication challenges. Participants required an IQ > 70, so findings do not generalize to autistic adults with intellectual disabilities.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. No other conflicts of interest were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the similar accuracy scores as evidence that autistic adults do not need support in sexual health contexts. The pragmatic language deficits suggest that while they know the facts, they may struggle to communicate these needs or boundaries effectively in social situations.