High-functioning autism and sexuality: a parental perspective.
Parents of high-schoolers with HFA worry far more about sex than the teens' actual behavior shows.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Nevin et al. (2005) asked parents about their teens with high-functioning autism.
They wanted to know if these parents worried more about sex than other parents.
They also checked if social skills explained any extra worry.
What they found
Parents of kids with HFA said they were much more worried about sex.
Even when the teens had similar social skills, the worry stayed high.
No other concern, like aggression or anxiety, stood out this way.
How this fits with other research
Dewinter et al. (2015) asked the teens themselves, not the parents.
Those teens with HFA said their sexual acts and feelings looked like typical peers.
Together the two papers show: parents fear more than the teens actually do.
Kamio et al. (2013) followed HFASD into adulthood and found early diagnosis helps life quality.
This hints that open sex ed soon after diagnosis may calm later parent stress.
Why it matters
You may hear parents sound panicked about their teen with autism and sex.
Remember the panic is real, but the teen's behavior is often typical.
Start sex ed early, use clear visuals, and reassure parents their kid is not unusual.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Few studies have compared sexual behaviours among adolescents with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typical populations, and indicated whether specialized education is required. We hypothesized that adolescents with HFA would (1) display poorer social behaviours; (2) engage in fewer behaviours related to privacy and have poorer knowledge regarding privacy issues; (3) have less sex education; and (4) display more inappropriate sexual behaviours; and that (5) parental concerns would be greater for the HFA sample. Parents of typical adolescents (n=50) and adolescents with HFA (n=23) were surveyed with a Sexual Behaviour Scale (SBS) developed by the authors, with domains corresponding to the hypotheses. The HFA and typical groups were found to be significantly different on all five domains. However, following covariation with age and level of social behaviour, it was found that only parental concerns about their child distinguished between typical adolescents and those with HFA. Specialized sex education programmes with a social interaction emphasis should be considered for this group.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2005 · doi:10.1177/1362361305053258