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.

项目总结/摘要 自闭症是一种终身发育障碍，影响每44人中就有1人，其特征是社交方面的挑战 沟通和社会互动以及受限制的重复性思维或行为模式。自闭症青年 成年人（AYAs）经历社会挑战，特别是在约会和性关系方面， 与非自闭症年轻人相比，抑郁、焦虑、自杀和性侵害的风险更高。到 为了弥补社会挑战，AYAs经常试图通过将自闭症特征替换为 与非自闭症患者相似的习得行为。采用这些非自闭症行为往往是 在现有的AYA性教育计划中鼓励，旨在减少外向表现 通过教AYA们“通过”成为非自闭症患者来展示自闭症特征。虽然隔离可以最大限度地减少社会疏远， 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，支持AYAs发展社会技能，使他们能够应对 面对社交挑战时不会隐藏自闭症特征此外，人们对与哪些社会挑战有关的问题知之甚少。 约会和性关系AYA想在性教育中学习。 使用参与式研究方法，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AYAs一起并为AYAs制定一项教育计划，该计划提供 管理AYAs认为影响约会关系的社交挑战的策略，同时也 验证和规范他们对社会情境的自然反应。具体目标包括：（1）确定 从AYAs的角度来看约会中的社会挑战; 2）确定约会中的哪些社会挑战， AYAs认为自己最有问题; 3）制定性教育计划，帮助AYAs 应对约会社交挑战。 对AYAs（30-50名参与者，18-30岁）关于社会挑战的访谈的定性内容分析 他们在约会中面临的问题（目标1）将为一个不同的更大的AYA群体（150- 175名参与者），从他们自己的角度确定性教育的最优先关注问题（Aim 2）。将制定一项性教育方案，以应对这些最优先的社会挑战（目标3）， 将包括约会社会挑战的场景，AYA可能会回应他们的非回避方式， 他们的反应可能带来的后果。我们的长期目标是为AYAs提供战略教育 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， 这降低了他们精神健康状况不佳和性受害的风险。