Dating and Sexual Education to Address Social Challenges of Autistic Young Adults

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Autism is a lifelong developmental disability affecting 1 in 44 people, characterized by challenges in social communication and social interaction and restricted repetitive patterns of thinking or behavior. Autistic young adults (AYAs) experience social challenges, particularly in dating and sexual relationships, that place them at high risk for depression, anxiety, suicide, and sexual victimization compared to non-autistic young adults. To compensate for social challenges, AYAs often try to “camouflage” autism by replacing autistic traits with learned behaviors that mirror those of non-autistics. Adoption of these non-autistic behaviors is often encouraged in existing sexual educational programs for AYAs, which aim to decrease the outward presentation of autistic traits by teaching AYAs to “pass” as non-autistic. While camouflaging may minimize social alienation, it comes at a high cost, often contributing to depression, loss of identity, and suicide. These serious outcomes point to a pressing need for interventions to support AYAs in developing social skills that allow them to respond to social challenges without hiding autistic traits. Further, little is known about what social challenges related to dating and sexual relationships AYAs want to learn about in sexual education. Using a participatory research approach, in which autistic self-advocates are members of the research team, the objective of this project is to develop an educational program with and for AYAs – a program that provides strategies for managing social challenges that AYAs identify as impacting dating relationships while also validating and normalizing their natural responses to social situations. Specific aims include: 1) to identify social challenges in dating from the perspective of AYAs; 2) to determine which social challenges in dating that AYAs identify as most problematic for themselves; and 3) to develop a sex education program to help AYAs manage dating social challenges. Qualitative content analysis of interviews with AYAs (30-50 participants, 18-30 years) about social challenges they face in dating (Aim 1) will inform the development of a survey for a different larger group of AYAs (150- 175 participants) to identify the highest priority concerns for sexual education from their own perspectives (Aim 2). A sexual education program to address those top priority social challenges will be developed (Aim 3), which will include scenarios of dating social challenges, non-camouflaging ways that AYAs may respond to them, and likely consequences of their responses. Our long-term goal is to provide AYAs with education about strategies for managing social challenges in dating that help them to make social decisions that make sense to them and that decrease their risks for poor mental health outcomes and sexual victimization.