“Everything and Nothing”: Measuring Perceived Salience of Gendered Cues at the Intersection of Autism and Gender Diversity

Abstract

Background:

Some autistic individuals report not connecting with neurotypical gender constructs. A general-population-based theory of gender identity development states that unless gendered cues (i.e., the indicators of various gender groups) are salient to an individual, one is not motivated to self-categorize in terms of gender. We hypothesized that autistic individuals are less likely to perceive gendered cues as salient than non-autistic individuals. We define gender salience as being aware of, paying attention to, and finding importance in gendered cues.

Methods:

Objective 1 involved codeveloping a measure of gender salience with a group of autistic adults and applying factor analytic techniques and the alignment method of measurement invariance testing to validate this measure, using data collected from 1834 participants via Prolific. Objective 2 involved assessing, in this sample, whether autism status, gender-diversity status, and sex-assigned-at-birth were significantly associated with scores on the subscales of the gender salience measure, with age as a covariate.

Results:

We identified five factors. We interpreted the factors as gender-related introspection, gender expectation awareness, gender-related rumination, gender social categorization, and gender self-identification. We found associations between being gender-diverse and higher levels of gender-related introspection, gender expectation awareness, gender-related rumination, and gender self-identification. Self-identified autistic adults, regardless of gender identity, were more likely than non-autistic adults to have higher gender-related introspection, gender expectation awareness, and gender-related rumination.

Conclusions:

Autistic adults perceive the salience of gender no less than, and in some respects even more than, non-autistic adults. These findings inform a “difference-and-not-delay” framing of autistic gender identity development.

Community Brief

Why is this an important issue?

A large proportion of autistic individuals identify as gender-diverse (i.e., identify as a gender different from one’s sex-assigned-at-birth). Some autistic individuals do not identify or connect with the concept of gender. Little research has been done to understand how autism-related experiences of gender identity develop in a manner that does not pathologize autistic experiences.

What was the purpose of this study?

The researchers considered the concept of “gender salience,” which refers to the extent to which one is aware of gender in the world around them and/or views it as meaningful. The goal of the study was to develop a measure of gender salience and to assess how scores on this measure differ between those who are or are not autistic, those who are or are not gender diverse, and those of different sex-assigned-at-birth groups.

What did the researchers do?

Working in collaboration with a group of autistic, gender-diverse individuals, we assembled a set of questionnaire items related to gender salience. We used the crowd-sourcing platform Prolific to collect survey data from 1834 participants comprising the following groups: autistic and gender-diverse adults, autistic and cisgender adults, non-autistic and gender-diverse adults, and non-autistic and cisgender adults. We used statistical methods to create a reliable and valid measure of gender salience. Construct validity was confirmed across groups. We then examined whether autism status, gender-diversity status, sex-assigned-at-birth, and age were associated with gender salience scores.

What were the results and conclusions of the study?

We successfully validated the new gender salience measure. We found that being gender diverse was associated with higher levels of gender-related introspection, gender expectation awareness, gender-related rumination, and gender self-identification. We also found that self-identified autistic individuals (but not clinically diagnosed autistic individuals) were more likely to have higher levels of gender-related introspection, gender expectation awareness, and gender-related rumination than non-autistic individuals. This could be because self-identified autistic individuals learned to be particularly aware of gender in the world around them as a social coping strategy.

What is new or controversial about these findings?

We found that autistic adults perceive and think about gender no less than, and in some cases even more than (e.g., in self-identified autistic adults), non-autistic adults. This goes against conservative rhetoric that autistic individuals are not thinking through their gender identities.

What are potential weaknesses of this study?

Our sample may not be representative of the diversity of the general population, in terms of the prevalence of autistic individuals with intellectual disability and high support needs, and demographic variables such as the country of origin. Also, our online data collection may have led to false respondents.

How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?

Given the rising skepticism voiced by some politicians and clinicians about the validity of autistic gender diversity, the findings have the potential to support autistic individuals in their self-understanding about gender, thereby promoting self-advocacy and self-determination, and to enhance clinicians’ and the general public’s understanding of how deeply autistic people think about gender.