Objectives: To develop and evaluate a group-based psycho-education and skill building curriculum created specifically for youth with ASDs that will enable families, professionals and educators to best understand how to teach this population about their developing sexuality.
Methods: Curriculum development was based on current literature on sexuality and ASDs and the authors’ clinical outcome data. Two primary underlying themes for the group were the social foundations of sexuality and safety of self and others. Group sessions addressed six topics: (1) the body and growing up (2) personal and other people’s boundaries, and public and private behavior (3) establishing friendships (4) romantic interests, (5) introduction to dating (including risky situations and legal issues), and (6) safety. Thirteen adolescent males (ages 15-18, M = 16.12, SD = 1.02) with an average verbal IQ and their parents were recruited for the current study. Adolescents attended 1of 2 eight-week groups that met weekly for 1.5 hours. Measures included adolescent and parent report during pre-group and post-group phases (see results). Parents and adolescents each selected two goals for the adolescent to achieve by the end of the group sessions.
Results: A wide-range of goals was set by participants (e.g., to better understand attraction, to master his grooming routine). A Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-ranks test indicated that parents and teens demonstrated significant progress towards their goals throughout the course of the group (parents session 2: M = 1.00, SD = .92, post-group: M = 2.85, SD = 1.28, Z (N = 13) = -3.10, p = .002; teens session 2: M = 2.08, SD = 1.12, post-group: M = 4.54, SD = .63, Z (N = 13) = -3.07, p = .002). Comfort level with the topic of sexuality also increased (parents pre-group: M = 40.71, SD = 4.87, post-group: M = 44.77, SD = 5.02, Z (N = 13) = -2.45, p = .01; teens pre group: M = 25.71, SD = 13.47, post-group: M = 35.85, SD = 12.20, Z (N = 13) = -2.20, p = .028). Additional analyses will compare pre-post changes in adolescents’ understanding of their developing sexuality, feelings of stress associated with growing up, parental concerns and acceptance of their adolescent’s emerging sexuality, and parents’ feelings of competence in being able to address issues related to sexuality.
Conclusions: Findings from the current study are promising for addressing the concerns of both adolescent males with ASDs and their parents regarding emerging sexuality and adolescent development. Next steps and recommended changes will be discussed.