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. 2023 Dec 6;20(24):7148.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20247148.

Measuring the Autistic Women's Experience (AWE)

Yvonne Groen  1 , W Miro Ebert  2 , Francien M Dittner  1 , Anne Fleur Stapert  3 , Daria Henning  4 , Kirstin Greaves-Lord  3   5 , R C D Lineke Davids  6 , Stynke Castelein  5   7 , Simon Baron Cohen  8 , Carrie Allison  8 , Ingrid D C Van Balkom  3 , Sigrid Piening  3
Affiliations

Measuring the Autistic Women's Experience (AWE)

Yvonne Groen et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

We developed a Dutch questionnaire called the Autistic Women's Experience (AWE) and compared its psychometric properties to the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Whilst attenuated gender differences on the AQ have been widely replicated, this instrument may not fully capture the unique experience of autistic women. The AWE was co-developed with autistic women to include items that reflect autistic women's experience. We investigated the AWE (49 items) and compared it with the AQ (50 items) in Dutch autistic individuals (N = 153, n = 85 women) and in the general population (N = 489, n = 246 women) aged 16+. Both the AQ and AWE had excellent internal consistency and were highly and equally predictive of autism in both women and men. Whilst there was a gender difference on the AQ among non-autistic people (men > women), there was no gender difference among autistic people, confirming all earlier studies. No gender differences were detected on the AWE overall scale, yet subtle gender differences were observed on the subscales. We conclude that the AQ is valid for both genders, but the AWE provides an additional useful perspective on the characteristics of autistic women. The AWE needs further validation in independent samples using techniques that allow for testing gender biases, as well as a confirmatory factor analysis in a larger sample.

Keywords: autism; factor analysis; female; screening; sensory sensitivity.

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Conflict of interest statement

SBC received funding from the Wellcome Trust 214322\Z\18\Z. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission. The results leading to this publication have received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777394 for the project AIMS-2-TRIALS. This joint undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and AUTISM SPEAKS, Autistica, SFARI. SBC also received funding from the Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) at Cambridge, SFARI, the Templeton World Charitable Fund, the MRC, and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. The research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East of England. Any views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the founder. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. Any views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the funders (IHI-JU2). All other authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ROC curves discriminating individuals with ASD from the general population via the AWE and AQ and separated by gender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histogram displaying the age of diagnosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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