News and Knowledge

Are adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at greater risk for sexual violence than others because of social deficits? For example, do they miss information coming from sources like friends or family on what constitutes sexually appropriate behaviors? Researchers from York University in Toronto, Canada sought to answer these and related questions in a study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders earlier this year. Specifically, the researchers wanted to compare adults with ASD against adults without ASD in three areas: knowledge of sexual topics, sources of that knowledge, and number of unwanted sexual experiences.

For the study, the researchers recruited 95 adults with ASD, ranging in age from 19 to 43, and 117 adults without ASD in the same age range. They asked participants to complete an anonymous questionnaire that measured their knowledge in three topic areas: sexually transmitted infections, sexual behaviors, and contraceptives. They then asked participants to rate their perceived knowledge within these areas through a series of true-or-false statements about their confidence in their expertise.

Participants also completed a checklist to identify the social and non-social sources of their knowledge. Social sources included resources like teachers, parents, and friends, while non-social sources included resources like the Internet, television, and educational brochures. Finally, participants took a 10-item survey. Each item described an unwanted sexual experience, and participants were asked, via “yes” or “no” responses, if they had personally gone through that experience.

The researchers found that the adults with ASD obtained less of their knowledge from social sources and more of their knowledge from non-social sources compared with the adults without ASD. For example, participants without ASD were between 2.53 and 3.35 times more likely to report obtaining information on STDs from parents, teachers, and peers while participants with ASD were between 1.66 and 3.51 times more likely to report obtaining information on STDs from television or radio.

Further, the researchers found that the individuals with ASD had less actual knowledge than the individuals without ASD and that they rated their perceived knowledge lower than did the participants without ASD. The researchers also found that the individuals with ASD experienced more sexual victimization than those without. For example, 78 percent of participants with ASD reported at least one occurrence of sexual victimization compared to 47.4 percent of participants without.

Despite the modest sample size, the results should cause parents, other caregivers, and educators to pay attention because they suggest that there is a relationship between lack of actual knowledge and increased risk of sexual victimization for individuals with ASD. The researchers suggest that tailoring the content of sexual education programs to the developmental and cognitive levels of adults with ASD may be an effective way to reduce that increased risk. In addition, the researchers recommend further research into whether the difficulty for adults with ASD in detecting negative intentions impacts safety in sexual interactions.

Source: Brown-Lavoie, S. M., Viecili, M. A., Weiss, J. A. (2014). Sexual Knowledge and Victimization in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44 (9), 2185-2196.