Measuring the Autistic Women's Experience (AWE)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) is widely used but may not fully represent autistic women's experiences.
• Previous research indicates attenuated gender differences on the AQ in autistic individuals, with no gender differences observed in autistic populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and psychometrically evaluate the Autistic Women's Experience (AWE) questionnaire.
• To compare the psychometric properties of the AWE with the AQ in autistic and general population samples.
• To investigate gender differences in autism assessment using both instruments.

Main Methods:

• Development of the AWE questionnaire in Dutch, co-designed with autistic women.
• Psychometric evaluation of the AWE (49 items) and AQ (50 items) in Dutch autistic individuals (N=153) and the general population (N=489).
• Analysis of internal consistency, predictive validity, and gender differences for both questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Both the AQ and AWE demonstrated excellent internal consistency and equal predictive validity for autism in men and women.
• No overall gender differences were found on the AWE, unlike the AQ which showed a gender difference in non-autistic individuals.
• Subtle gender differences were noted on AWE subscales, suggesting nuanced gender-specific experiences.

Conclusions:

• The AQ is a valid measure for both genders, but the AWE offers valuable additional insights into the experiences of autistic women.
• The AWE requires further validation, including testing for gender bias and confirmatory factor analysis in larger, independent samples.