Sex, Sexuality, and Gender Identity in ASD - take two

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Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that preparation of the second phase of my "Sex, Sexuality, and Gender Identity in ASD" project is finally complete and ready for distribution. For those of you who missed out on the first study, it was a comprehensive assessment of all things sex and gender and how Aspies experience them. There is a 45 page report available free for those interested in the results. Just email me at [email protected] to get your copy.

On first assessment, Study 2 may not seem related in any way to sex, sexuality, or gender identity! That is, in this next survey we ask you all about the social groups you belong to and how you feel about being a member of them. For now, you will just have to trust that there IS a link - a vital one - and it is really important that we find out about your social identity in order to find more answers about ASD gender identity.

I would really appreciate if you could complete the survey and post it far and wide so that we could get a nice, big sample of people both on and off the spectrum responding again. You all played such an important role in Study 1 in spreading the survey and it would be awesome if you could help out in this way again. The good news is that Study 2 REALLY IS shorter this time! I know the last one was mammoth, but this survey takes around 30-40 minutes to complete. Absolutely ANYONE can take the survey. There are no restrictions on age, nationality or ASD status.

Professor Tony Attwood is once again consulting on this study and you can also find the link to the study on his website under the "Research Studies" section. Oh, and as a thank you, we are offering a bunch of $30 Coles/Myer, Amazon, and iTunes vouchers to win in a prize draw once the survey period is finished.

Thank you all in advance for your support and without further ado, here is the link to Study 2:

https://exp.psy.uq.edu.au/social/

I think I participated in the first study of yours as well. Interesting stuff that goes a bit beyond the very basic stuff I often see in research.

Some of your questions have issues but not sure if there is anything to do about it. Also wow if I actually try you to describe myself in a survey like that it fails. I did the best I could again though.

The major issue I saw was offering to let people say they were poly but then asking questions about their single partner. If you had a comment box about either group identity or gender and sexual injury I could have filed in a whole bunch.

Done!

I found the survey essentially gave lip service to the idea of non-binary gender (or lack of gender) but didn't really support it in the questions, with the focus on male, female, man, woman, and references strictly to "opposite" sexes.

It wasn't the best, but it was interesting, at least.

Done. Pretty sure I participated in part one, but I didn't hear anything back.

done

I would agree with this.

A comment field would be helpful for people taking the survey but it would probably make processing the data much more difficult so I guess I'm ok with there not being one. Maybe administering a Kinsey scale test would help determine people's sexuality a little more accurately. I'm not sure how many people put heavy thought to their sexual preference or identity unless it's outside the norm.

But if you're doing a study on the topic, you should care about people outside the norm - if the study is "inside the norm, or you don't really count", then the amount of information you get is so much smaller.

I think you missed my point. I'm saying people inside the norm (i.e. average heterosexual) probably haven't spent a lot of time analyzing their sexuality enough to answer the questions in this survey accurately. People outside the norm, like myself, have given a good deal of thought toward their orientation and would be able to more accurately respond to the questions. The Kinsey scale is administered to get an assessment as to where on the sexual orientation scale one falls as it's not as black and white as some would believe.

Yes, I agree; I identify as androgynous and somewhat feminine, with a female body. I had to keep reminding myself that "male" was designated as the opposite gender because we were going by assigned-at-birth gender. The real opposite, for me, is someone who identifies very strongly with one gender or the other--either someone who is very strongly cis female or male, or someone who is very strongly trans female or male, someone whose gender is an extreme part of his/her identity.

I was also a bit confused by being asked first whether I perceived a disconnect between body and mind, and then how aware I was of physical sensations. I did a double take when I realized I had answered that there was a large disconnect between my body and mind, but I was extremely aware of physical sensations. Those two seemed incompatible, but they are both true. Maybe it is because I have deliberately learned to distance my mind from my body, just so my thoughts don't get flooded by sensory information I can't really ignore.

I did the survey and I'll post my results when I get them.

Done. I only have one complaint, and it is to group asexuality with sexual orientation. If it was possible, I would have checked both heterosexual and asexual.

I have completed the survey. Will be waiting to see my results.

Ok filled it out! I'd really like to read the results for both surveys. I'll probably email for a copy of survey 1. Are there any other studies about this topic? It seems to be quite a good topic to research on.