Kallitsounaki Aimilia, Williams David M
School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom.
Autism Adulthood. 2023 Jun 1;5(2):210-216. doi: 10.1089/aut.2022.0113. Epub 2023 Jun 13.
Research has shown that many autistic people have alexithymia, a psychological trait characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing emotions. It is also now clear that there is a high rate of autism among transgender people, but we know little about the intersection of autism and gender diversity or about the clinical features of autistic transgender individuals.
Seventy-eight nonautistic transgender, 56 autistic transgender, 106 nonautistic cisgender, and 107 autistic cisgender adults completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and the Autism-spectrum Quotient as part of an online study. We also used the General Alexithymia Factor Score-8 as an additional alexithymia score.
We found that nonautistic transgender participants reported significantly higher mean levels of alexithymia than nonautistic cisgender participants, and that there was a significant overrepresentation of individuals in this group who met the clinical cutoff for alexithymia. The difference in alexithymia between autistic cisgender and autistic transgender participants was nonsignificant, with >50% of each group scoring above the clinical cutoff point. Of note, when we used the General Alexithymia Factor Score-8, the difference between autistic transgender participants and autistic cisgender participants was significant, with autistic transgender participants reporting higher mean levels of alexithymia.
Results suggest that nonautistic transgender individuals might be more prone to experience alexithymia (including at clinically significant levels) than nonautistic cisgender people. When autism occurs in transgender people, the average level and clinical rate of alexithymia is higher than among nonautistic transgender people and potentially higher than among autistic cisgender people. Our findings are in keeping with evidence of a subgroup of transgender people with "subclinical autism" and inconsistent with the notion that autism among transgender and gender diverse people is a "phenomimic" of autism. Lastly, our study highlights the potential importance of screening autistic and nonautistic transgender people for alexithymia.
研究表明，许多自闭症患者存在述情障碍，这是一种以识别和描述情感困难为特征的心理特质。现在也很清楚，跨性别者中自闭症的发病率很高，但我们对自闭症与性别多样性的交叉情况以及自闭症跨性别个体的临床特征了解甚少。
作为一项在线研究的一部分，78名非自闭症跨性别成年人、56名自闭症跨性别成年人、106名非自闭症顺性别成年人和107名自闭症顺性别成年人完成了多伦多述情障碍量表-20和自闭症谱系商数测试。我们还使用一般述情障碍因子得分-8作为另一个述情障碍分数。
我们发现，非自闭症跨性别参与者报告的述情障碍平均水平显著高于非自闭症顺性别参与者，且该组中达到述情障碍临床临界值的个体比例显著过高。自闭症顺性别参与者和自闭症跨性别参与者在述情障碍方面的差异不显著，每组中超过50%的人得分高于临床临界值。值得注意的是，当我们使用一般述情障碍因子得分-8时，自闭症跨性别参与者和自闭症顺性别参与者之间的差异显著，自闭症跨性别参与者报告的述情障碍平均水平更高。
结果表明，非自闭症跨性别个体可能比非自闭症顺性别个体更容易出现述情障碍（包括在临床显著水平）。当自闭症发生在跨性别者中时，述情障碍的平均水平和临床发生率高于非自闭症跨性别者，可能也高于自闭症顺性别者。我们的研究结果与存在“亚临床自闭症”的跨性别者亚组的证据一致，与跨性别和性别多样化人群中的自闭症是自闭症“模仿症”的观点不一致。最后，我们的研究强调了对自闭症和非自闭症跨性别者进行述情障碍筛查的潜在重要性。
