Sexual Minority Identities in Autistic Adults: Diversity and Associations with Mental Health Symptoms and Subjective Quality of Life

McQuaid, Goldie; Gendy, Justine; Lee, Nancy; Wallace, Gregory L.

doi:10.1089/aut.2021.0088

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Separate research indicates that relative to autistic males, a higher proportion of autistic females report a sexual minority identity (Dewinter et al, 2017;R. George & Stokes, 2018;McQuaid, Gendy, et al, 2023;Pecora et al, 2019;Weir et al, 2021). These findings are similar to the general population surveys indicating that people who identify as women are more likely to report a sexual minority identity than people who identify as men (J. M. Jones, 2021).…”

Section: Matchingmentioning

confidence: 75%

Self-reported Social Camouflaging in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Autistic Adults

McQuaid,

Lee,

Wallace

2024

Preprint

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Social camouflaging can include suppressing or concealing certain behaviors to appear “non-autistic” and is one response to the excess social stressors of being a neurominority in a neurotypical-majority society. It is important to understand how persons who are multiply marginalized (e.g., an autistic person assigned female sex at birth who is bisexual), who experience multiple layers of excess social stressors, may face additional pressures to conceal their authentic selves. Autistic persons may be more likely than neurotypical persons to identify with a sexual minority orientation, such as asexual, bisexual, gay or pansexual. To advance our understanding of how marginalized identities may be associated with social camouflaging, we examined self-reported social camouflaging using the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire in a sample of autistic adults (N=462). After matching participants for assigned sex at birth and age, and after controlling for these effects in modeling, we found that sexual minority autistic adults reported significantly higher levels of social camouflaging relative to heterosexual autistic adults. We situate these findings within literatures on social camouflaging, minority stress, and stigma.

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Section: Matchingmentioning

confidence: 75%

Self-reported Social Camouflaging in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Autistic Adults

McQuaid,

Lee,

Wallace

2024

Preprint

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“…The prevalence of autism within GM youth (ages 14-25 years old) is approximately 23% (Strauss et al, 2021). Furthermore, one recent study found approximately 41% of autistic adults (ages 18-83 years old) reported identifying with an SM group (McQuaid et al, 2023). However, no study to date has examined the prevalence rates of autism specifically within SM college students, which is perhaps surprising given the independently increasing rates of both autistic students and students with SGM identities pursuing higher education.…”

Section: Autism and Sm And Gm Identitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autism and sexual and gender minority identity in college students: Examination of self-reported rates, functional outcomes, and treatment engagement

Soto,

Orantes,

Russo

et al. 2024

Autism

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This study builds on existing literature on autism spectrum disorder (autism) and sexual and gender minority (SGM) identities and is the first to examine self-declared frequency rates, associated functional impairments, and treatment engagement levels for sexual minority (SM) and non-SM populations with and without autism cross-sectionally via a large nationwide college-student sample across 3 years. Using data from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) III, we analyzed data from 81,286 college students (ages 18–25 years old) randomly selected from 75 U.S. colleges and universities. Included ACHA-NCHA-III measures consisted of self-reported demographics, SM and gender minority (GM) identities, autism diagnosis, stress, academic impairment, mental health symptoms, and treatment engagement. We found a 2.8% self-declared frequency of autism in the SM group, compared with 0.9% self-declared frequency among the non-SM sample. Autistic college students with both SM and GM identities had the greatest levels of reported adverse stress and the most negative academic and mental health outcomes (i.e., suicidality), followed by college students with two minority identities (i.e., Autism and SM, SM and GM), across all groups. These findings emphasize the need for mental healthcare providers to consider SM and GM identities in non-autistic and, especially, in autistic college students to assess suicide risk and inform treatment. Lay abstract Autistic individuals and those who identify with a sexual and/or gender minority are both at risk for various mental health concerns and related impairments. However, the connection between autism and sexual and/or gender minorities and mental health and functional outcomes is not clear. Here, we provide evidence of these connections by analyzing data from a large nationally representative dataset from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III. We found that autistic college students who identify with both sexual and gender minorities reported the highest rates of stress, academic, and mental health concerns including suicidality when compared with autistic college students with or without a sexual and/or gender minority. In addition, college students with at least two identities, such as autism and a sexual minority identity or both a sexual and gender minority identity, reported the next highest rates of concern. These findings affirm the need for mental healthcare providers to consider the intersections of a sexual and gender minority identities in non-autistic and, especially, in autistic college students to develop and provide better support and resources.

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What We Know and Do Not Know About Camouflaging, Impression Management, and Mental Health and Wellbeing in Autistic People

Khudiakova,

Alexandrovsky,

et al. 2024

Autism Research

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Camouflaging is an impression management strategy employed by some autistic people, widely seen as a response to the pervasive stigma surrounding autism in society. Autistic narratives and lived experiences consistently link camouflaging to anxiety, depression, suicide risks, and autistic burnout. Quantitative research is yet to determine the nature of these relationships, with a significant portion of recent studies providing inconsistent evidence. While camouflaging can be a compelled survival strategy in social environments, it might also contribute to positive outcomes such as securing employment and forming positive social relationships, implicating a complex interrelationship with mental health and wellbeing. We advocate for using a transactional impression management framework to understand camouflaging and wellbeing and address the inconsistencies in research. Through examining the transactions among a person's individual and cognitive characteristics, behavior modification strategies, and the particular social contexts they find themselves in, this framework guides new empirical research directions to delineate the relationships between camouflaging, impression management, mental health, and wellbeing. There is a need to develop multiple measures of camouflaging that delineate the motivations, ability, effortfulness, and perceived effectiveness of camouflaging and examine how a person's social behaviors are perceived in different social environments. Research should also focus on intersectionality, sociocultural influences, and diverse autistic voices to study context‐sensitive camouflaging experiences across the autistic population.

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Sexual Minority Identities in Autistic Adults: Diversity and Associations with Mental Health Symptoms and Subjective Quality of Life

Cited by 9 publications

References 85 publications

Self-reported Social Camouflaging in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Autistic Adults

Self-reported Social Camouflaging in Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Autistic Adults

Autism and sexual and gender minority identity in college students: Examination of self-reported rates, functional outcomes, and treatment engagement

What We Know and Do Not Know About Camouflaging, Impression Management, and Mental Health and Wellbeing in Autistic People

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