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

约会和性教育应对自闭症年轻人的社会挑战

• 批准号: 10645387
• 负责人: Laura Foran Lewis
• 金额: $ 19.5万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10645387
• 关键词: Address; Adopted; Adoption; Advocate; Affect; Age Years; Anxiety; Behavior; Cessation of life; Child; Coitus; Compensation; Conscious; Decision Making; Development; Developmental Disabilities; Distress; Education; Educational Materials; Educational process of instructing; Effectiveness; Face; Facial Expression; Fostering; Goals; Instruction; Intervention; Interview; Learning; Link; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Methods; Outcome; Outcome Study; Participant; Pattern; Persons; Pilot Projects; Privatization; Program Description; Psyche structure; Questionnaires; Randomized, Controlled Trials; Research; Research Design; Risk; Sex Education; Social Alienation; Social Behavior; Social Interaction; Socialization; Students; Suicide; Surveys; Thinking; Time; Unconscious State; United States; Work; adult with autism spectrum disorder; autism spectrum disorder; autistic; cost; design; experience; high risk; improved; instructor; learned behavior; member; novel; peer; premature; programs; response; sexual debut; sexual relationship; sexual victimization; skills; social; social communication; social relationships; social situation; social skills; trait; young adult; young adult with autism spectrum disorder

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.

项目概要/摘要 自闭症是一种终生发育障碍，每 44 人中就有 1 人受到影响，其特点是社交方面的挑战 沟通和社交互动以及受限的重复思维或行为模式。自闭症青年 成年人（AYA）经历社会挑战，特别是在约会和性关系方面，这使他们处于困境 与非自闭症年轻人相比，抑郁、焦虑、自杀和性受害的风险较高。到 为了弥补社会挑战，AYA 经常试图通过用 习得的行为反映了非自闭症患者的行为。这些非自闭症行为的采用通常是 鼓励现有的 AYA 性教育计划，旨在减少外在表现 通过教导 AYA“通过”非自闭症特征来了解自闭症特征。虽然伪装可以最大限度地减少社交疏远， 它的代价很高，常常导致抑郁、丧失身份和自杀。这些严重后果 指出迫切需要采取干预措施来支持 AYA 发展社交技能，使他们能够做出反应 应对社会挑战而不隐藏自闭症特征。此外，人们对与哪些社会挑战相关的知之甚少。 AYA 希望在性教育中了解约会和性关系。 采用参与式研究方法，其中自闭症自我倡导者是研究团队的成员， 该项目的目标是与 AYA 一起并为 AYA 制定一个教育计划——该计划提供 管理 AYA 认为影响约会关系的社会挑战的策略，同时也 验证并规范他们对社交情境的自然反应。具体目标包括：1）确定 从 AYA 的角度来看约会中的社会挑战； 2）确定约会时面临哪些社会挑战 AYA 认为自己是最有问题的； 3) 制定性教育计划来帮助 AYA 管理约会社交挑战。 对 AYA（30-50 名参与者，18-30 岁）有关社会挑战的访谈进行定性内容分析 他们在约会中面临的情况（目标 1）将为针对不同的较大 AYA 群体（150- 175 名参与者）从自己的角度确定性教育最优先关注的问题（目标 2）。将制定一项性教育计划来解决这些最重要的社会挑战（目标 3）， 将包括约会社交挑战的场景、AYA 可能应对这些挑战的非伪装方式，以及 他们的反应可能产生的后果。我们的长期目标是为 AYA 提供有关策略的教育 管理约会中的社会挑战，帮助他们做出对他们有意义的社会决定， 这降低了他们心理健康状况不佳和性受害的风险。