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

项目摘要/摘要 自闭症是一种终生发育性残疾，每44人中就有1人患有自闭症，其特征是在社会生活中面临挑战 沟通和社会互动以及受限制的重复思维或行为模式。患有自闭症的年轻人 成年人(AYA)经历社交挑战，特别是在约会和性关系方面，这使他们处于 与非自闭症的年轻人相比，抑郁、焦虑、自杀和性侵害的风险很高。至 为了弥补社会挑战，AYA经常试图通过将自闭症特征替换为 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 在针对AYA的现有性教育计划中鼓励，旨在减少外在表现 通过教AYA以非自闭症的身份“通过”，来识别自闭症的特征。虽然伪装可能会将社会疏离感降至最低， 它的代价很高，通常会导致抑郁、身份丧失和自杀。这些严重的后果 指出迫切需要干预措施，以支持AYA发展社交技能，使他们能够做出反应 在不隐藏自闭症特征的情况下应对社会挑战。此外，关于社会挑战与什么有关，我们知之甚少 约会和性关系AYA们想从性教育中学习。 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， 这个项目的目标是开发一个与AYAS一起和为AYAS服务的教育计划--一个提供 管理AYA认为影响约会关系的社会挑战的策略，同时还 验证他们对社会环境的自然反应并使之正常化。具体目标包括：1)确定 从AYA的角度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；以及3)制定一个性教育计划来帮助Ayas 应对约会社交挑战。 对AYA(30-50岁参与者，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)将为针对不同更大的AYA群体(150- 175名参与者)从他们自己的角度确定性教育最优先关注的问题(目的 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)， 将包括约会社交挑战的场景，AYA可能应对它们的非伪装方式，以及 他们回应的可能后果。我们的长期目标是为AYA提供有关战略的教育 管理约会中的社交挑战，帮助他们做出对他们有意义的社交决定 这降低了他们心理健康状况不佳和性侵害的风险。

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.