Autistic traits in the general population - a study!

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Hi everyone,

Want to participate in a research study? The following study is being undertaken by a Psychology honours student, and participants are being sought.

The study looks at gender differences in communication and social skills. In particular, it explores differences between people (in the general population) with high and low levels of autistic traits. Therefore only participants who have NOT BEEN DIAGNOSED with an ASD are required. The only other requirement is that you are over 18 years old.

To participate, all you need to do is fill out a questionnaire which should take less than 20 minutes to complete. (It will probably contain questions you are used to answering if you have taken other related tests.) It's completely anonymous. More information, and the questionnaire, can be found here:

http://opinio.online.swin.edu.au/s?s=8286

If you can't participate due to having an ASD, feel free to pass this on to family or friends who are not on the spectrum. Your time and contribution will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
yt

So you're specifically trying to recruit NTs. Fine, that's fine, but... why are you posting on a forum full of Aspies, then?!

Yeah, I'm also confused as to the population you're looking for. A sample of undiagnosed people on an autism-specific site might not give an accurate representation of autistic traits in the "general population." There could be a lot more broader-autistic-phenotype and undiagnosed-but-autistic people here than exists in the population at large.

There are many people here who do not have a diagnosis but think they may be autistic. There are also all the people who are on the Broad Autism Spectrum (especially in families where one person is autistic), they are in between the autistic category and the NT category.

Then, there are all of those who have a disorder which is not Autism, and some of them may have Autistic traits because of it.

This study seems quite difficult to realize in my opinion with all the people who have not been diagnosed yet, those who do not know "what is wrong with them" or those who could have been misdiagnosed. Plus, other disorders may change the results.

Probably because s/he feels that people here are interested in psychology, so we would probably show this to someone else.

Can people that haven't been diagnosised, but suspect it take it?

One would assume that if people with ASDs are excluded because they aren't NT, people who suspect they have an ASD should probably refrain as well; it would only be good manners. But I'm not the OP.

Thanks all for your responses, I thought this might come up. As this forum is availble for anyone to join, I figured there would be plenty of people who haven't been diagnosed but possess autistic traits, or parents, siblings etc. of those who are diagnosed. The data is being collected from a wide range of sources, to attempt to cover the whole "spectrum" of the general population (e.g. if data was only collected from the university, that in itself would be a narrow population). Responses from those from this forum will therefore include many who possess high levels of autistic traits, and that's fine.

And yes, I thought there might be people here interested in psychology/research/filling-out-questionnaires.

Anyone who has not been officially diagnosed is welcome to participate. Hope that clears it up.

Cheers
yt

That's somewhat true, but people in that category are not specifically excluded. Those who suspect they have an ASD might simply have a high level of traits, and are therefore valuable to the research.

So, are all undiagnosed people classified as "not autistic" for the purposes of the study? It sounds
like the assumption is that all diagnosable people are diagnosed. Otherwise, you get people with lots of traits, because they actually are diagnosable but not diagnosed, counting as "non-ASD." That would make the rate of ASD traits in the general population look higher than it really is.

Nobody is classified as "not autistic" in this study - the fact that some participants might be autistic but undiagnosed is simply a limitation of this type of study, which is the case with most research of this type, and is hard to avoid in a fourth-year thesis study.

The rate of ASD traits will not be looked at, more the differences between people who have different levels of traits.

All of these types of issues are discussed between the student and supervisor, and will be taken into account in the write-up.

[quote="lostD"]There are many people here who do not have a diagnosis but think they may be autistic. There are also all the people who are on the Broad Autism Spectrum (especially in families where one person is autistic), they are in between the autistic category and the NT category.

Where is the border between autism and nt? I find that very difficult. I am an in betwener. I think it will be very hard to get concreate results for this resurge. All pshychological research is never 100% correct. It is depending the environment, mood etc.

Alright folks. Line up. Turn your heads and cough.
Just a warning: He's going to grab your #@% as he goes by, so get ready.

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I am NOT part of the general population.

I find it somewhat sad that autistic people are excluded from this study though it's understandable. I think it would have been great to compare the Autistic population to the non autistic one, especially the differences between people who have a disorder from birth, those who have aquired one such as depression and those who are supposed to have none.

However, I think it may be too difficult to do since you'd need lots of time and people to do so.

The problem with what you are trying to do is that the results may not be accurate since someone who has not been diagnosed yet could be diagnosed years after your study so they will no longer be part of the population you are studying.

By the way, many autistic people have succeeded in having a "normal" life and could appear more NT than the people you may study, or their traits could not be so obvious therefore they could fall into the "general population with autistic traits" category because of their coping skills. It's just like dyslexia, my grandmother is dyslexic but became a fast and good reader so she could fit the non dyslexic category.

Yes, it would have been great to be able to include everyone. Some of the scales used in the study have been used many times on ASD populations though, so they can be compared to an extent. Part of this study is about extendings the findings of studies looking at those with ASD, to those in the general population.


Yep, as I said this is a common problem with research on specific populations.


I totally agree, and this research actually tries to address part of this issue by looking at the differences between males and females. I can't go into details until the data has ben collected but what you raise is a part of what the study is about. Just a small look at a big area, though, due to the constraints.

My personal opinion, as I'm an in-betweener too, is that it is a spectrum condition, which extends out to the general population, so there's no border. This seems to be the most commonly held belief among researchers too.

As for this study, the data probably won't be divided into groups, e.g. "low vs. high", and will be instead analysed using regressions, which is based on the spectrum idea and allows for differences to be viewed as a "graduated increase/decrease" in whatever aspect is being analysed.

Every time I see an undergrad psych student inviting people to participate in a "study" on the internet, I always have the urge to take the test and screw around with the answers. I don't know why I do that.