Abstract
A link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender identity difficulties has been suggested. In this study, we found that, among adults from the general population (N = 101) ASD traits (measured using the Autism-spectrum Quotient) were associated negatively and significantly with the strength of both explicit gender self-concept (measured using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire) and implicit gender self-concept (measured using an Implicit Association Task). Further analyses showed that a subgroup with high/clinically significant ASD traits showed significantly weaker explicit and implicit gender self-concepts than a subgroup with low ASD traits. Results were similar in both males and females, although there was some evidence of a selective influence of ASD traits on implicit gender self-concept among females only.
Highlights
Gender describes a constellation of traits, behaviours, and roles attributed to males and females within society (Wood and Eagly 2009)
We explored the relation between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits and implicit gender self-concept for first time, employing the gender self-concept Implicit Association Test (IAT) described by Greenwald and Farnham (2000)
The first notable set of findings of the current study was about the link between ASD traits and the explicit gender self-concept
Summary
Gender describes a constellation of traits, behaviours, and roles attributed to males and females within society (Wood and Eagly 2009). Research has shown that people attribute to themselves both feminine and masculine traits, with birth-assigned-males endorsing more masculine attributes as self-descriptive, and with birth-assigned-females endorsing more feminine attributes to themselves, on average (Bem 1974; Spence and Helmreich 1978) Despite their extensive use in research, these self-report measures rely on accurate self-awareness of one’s own traits (which is unlikely to always be the case) and are considered susceptible to the effects of self-presentation (Devos et al 2012; Nosek et al 2005, 2007). Findings from the classic Greenwald and Farnham (2000) study using the gender self-concept IAT showed that birth-assigned-females tend to respond faster when the category of self shares the same response key as traditionally feminine attributes than when self shares response key with traditionally masculine attributes. There has been evidence about increased gender dysphoric traits among individuals with ASD (George and Stokes 2018) and an increased likelihood to express the wish to be the opposite gender (Janssen et al 2016; May et al 2017; Strang et al 2014; van der Miesen et al 2018) and to report atypical gender identities (e.g., Bejerot and Eriksson 2014; George and Stokes 2018)
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