Abstract
Background:
Many autistic adults are interested in having more and better-quality friendships and dating relationships, but there are too few evidence-based interventions that support building healthier peer relationships. Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum (HEARTS) is a six-session, online class codeveloped with autistic people and co-delivered by teams that include at least one autistic expert who operates from the core idea that autistic people can be their authentic selves and can create and maintain healthy, supportive, mutual intimate partnership and friendship relationships.
Methods:
This preregistered randomized controlled trial study investigated the effects of HEARTS for autistic individuals aged 18 years old and older. Autistic individuals (N = 92) were randomly assigned to either HEARTS or an active control condition (ACC). The purpose of this study was to find out if the HEARTS class had an impact on participants’ self-directed relationship satisfaction goals, social motivation, experiences with aggressive acts in dating relationships, attitudes toward rejection, or hostile automatic thoughts 12 weeks after the HEARTS class ended.
Results:
Compared with the ACC group, participants in HEARTS showed statistically significant improvement in relationship satisfaction. There were no improvements in experiences with aggressive acts in dating relationships, social motivation, hostile automatic thoughts, or rejection sensitivity.
Conclusions:
HEARTS is feasible to implement and was generally well-received by the community as well as effective for improving relationship satisfaction.
Community Brief
Why is this an important issue?
Many autistic adults want to date, have friends, and have better relationships with friends, intimate, and sexual partners. Healthy relationships information that was designed with input from autistic people is rare, as are classes that are taught to autistic people by autistic people. The Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum, or HEARTS, program was designed by autistic and non-autistic people together and is delivered online by pairs of autistic and non-autistic experts.
What was the purpose of this study?
The purpose of this study was to find out if the HEARTS class had an impact on participants’ relationship satisfaction, social motivation, experiences with aggressive acts in dating relationships, attitudes toward rejection, or hostile automatic thoughts.
What did the researchers do?
The researchers divided a group of 92 autistic individuals into two groups. Half (n = 44) received the HEARTS intervention, and half (n = 48) attended an online discussion group, which was the “control” condition. The researchers collected data before the online groups began and 12 weeks after the groups began.
What were the results and conclusions of the study?
Participants in HEARTS showed greater improvement in relationship satisfaction compared with those in the control condition. However, participants in HEARTS did not show improvement in social motivation, experiences with aggressive acts in dating relationships, hostile automatic thoughts, or rejection sensitivity compared with the people in the control group.
What is new or controversial about these findings?
HEARTS may be able to help autistic adults who want to improve relationships and feel more satisfied with them.
What are potential weaknesses in the study?
The study did not test whether HEARTS worked better than nothing at all. The study tested whether HEARTS worked better than an online discussion group, which was similar to HEARTS. Since the online discussion group worked well for autistic people, the added benefits of HEARTS may be relatively small compared with the benefits of an online discussion group.
How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?
These findings will help autistic adults decide if they want to participate in the HEARTS class. The findings also help researchers think about how HEARTS or similar interventions can be improved for autistic participants.
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