3.50 ASD and Gender Diversity: Correlation, Implications, and Next Steps

Abstract

Growing evidence suggests an overrepresentation of ASD among individuals of all ages who identify as gender-diverse. This topic is particularly relevant to children and adolescents given the steady and rapid increase in prevalence of both nonbinary gender identity and ASD. Per the existing literature, the phenomenon appears to be bidirectional with both children and adolescents with ASD reporting higher-than-expected rates of gender dysphoria/incongruence (over 4 times the general population) as well as an increased incidence of ASD or ASD-like traits among transgender and gender-diverse individuals (range 3%-68% depending on the diagnostic or screening tools for ASD utilized).