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Gender Variance and the Autism Spectrum: An Examination of Children Ages 6–12 Years

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Abstract

Gender variance (GV) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently co-occur in clinical populations. We investigated GV in association with ASD characteristics in nonclinical children and in children with developmental/mental health diagnoses. In 6–12-year-olds (N = 2445; 51% birth-assigned boys), the Gender Identity Questionnaire for Children measured GV and the Children’s Social Behavior Questionnaire measured six subdomains of ASD characteristics. Among nonclinical children, GV was associated with parent-reported difficulties orienting socially and stereotyped behaviors. GV was also associated with parent-reported clinical diagnoses of ASD, sensory processing disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder. These findings suggest associations between specific ASD characteristics and GV in nonclinical children. Also, childhood GV should be further examined in a range of clinical populations, including ASD individuals.

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Notes

  1. Although SPD is not included in the DSM, it is included here for two reasons: (a) it has been conceptualized in the child development literature as a complex condition involving hyper- or hypo-sensitivity to sensory stimuli, a heightened drive for sensory experiences, difficulty discriminating sensations, and atypical responses to sensory stimuli that, together, impact daily functioning (Miller and Schaaf 2008), and (b) previous authors have forwarded the hypothesis that elevated GV might be associated with altered sensitivity towards certain sensory input (e.g. tactile sensations) that intersects with gender expression (de Vries et al. 2010; Tateno et al. 2008; Williams et al. 1996). This latter consideration is particularly relevant to the inclusion of SPD in the present study because it allows for a quantitative assessment of this previously proposed hypothesis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Carla Mazefsky and two anonymous reviewers for thoughful comments on earlier drafts of this article. ANN and AS were supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Undergraduate Research Awards. This research was funded by a University of Toronto Mississauga Research and Scholarly Activity Fund Award and a SSHRC Insight Development Grant awarded to DPV.

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  1. Alanna Santarossa

    Present address: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Deerfield Hall, 3359 Mississauga Road, Office 4098, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada

    A. Natisha Nabbijohn, Alanna Santarossa, Diana Peragine, Meng-Chuan Lai & Doug P. VanderLaan

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anna I. R. van der Miesen, Annelou L. C. de Vries & Arne Popma

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Meng-Chuan Lai

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Meng-Chuan Lai

  5. Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Meng-Chuan Lai

  6. Child and Youth Psychiatry, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

    Doug P. VanderLaan

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ANN, AS, and DPV conceived and designed the study. ANN, AS, DEP, and DPV collected the data. ANN, AIRvdM, DEP, MCL and DPV conducted the data analyses. All authors participated in writing and revising the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Doug P. VanderLaan.

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Nabbijohn, A.N., van der Miesen, A.I.R., Santarossa, A. et al. Gender Variance and the Autism Spectrum: An Examination of Children Ages 6–12 Years. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 1570–1585 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3843-z

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