Looking Through a Cultural Perspective: Autistic Young Adults' Experiences and Expectations in Sexuality and Relationship Education in the U.S.

Abstract

Although students with diverse cultural backgrounds need sexuality and relationship education (SRE), the perspectives of those from different cultural groups with neurodevelopmental conditions are often under-investigated. The autistic population, in particular, may have communication and sensory preferences that can be unsupported by the current SRE for non-autistic people, and the cultural relatedness of the SRE they received are often unrecognized. To better understand autistic individuals' insights, nine autistic young adults from different cultural groups between 20 and 35 years old (four cis-males, two cis-females, three non-binaries) were interviewed to learn about their previous experiences and future expectations in sexuality and relationship education. Results of the inductive (i.e., bottom-up) thematic analyses indicated a low consideration of cultural aspects in their SRE experiences reported by autistic adults. The results highlighted the need for a diverse, consistent, and tailored SRE for the autistic population, with more efforts made from the education system to promote cultural adaptations of SRE. Suggestions are provided for the education systems, professionals, parents, and researchers to develop more tailored SRE for the autistic population.