Survey Regarding Autism and Romantic Relationships

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Hey guys,

I made a survey regarding autism and romantic relationships. The goal of the survey is to better understand how people with autism navigate romantic relationships and to also see whether or not people with autism struggle with dating relative to the neurotypical population. I feel like there isn't enough research that covers the topic of dating among people with autism.

If you have 5 minutes, I would really appreciate it if you fill out this survey. You don't have to log in to your google account and all results will be anonymous. I'm only looking for people who have autism/aspergers or those who think they have it, thank you.

This is the second survey request today. I'm not completely up on the Wrong Planet rules regarding outside requests, but I believe this might be something that needs to be approved by the mods or Alex?

Is this for some sort of research? Are you simply personally curious? We'll most likely have many questions for you.

Keep them coming! I love surveys!

When I get to at least 100 responses, then I will make the results public. Currently at around 50.

Here is the spreadsheet for the results of the autism and romance survey if anybody is interested.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Here is a general overview of some of the results so far. I have analyzed some of the data and here are some interested things to point out. Note that as more people fill out the survey, the results will change a little.


Out of 59 Men:
56 said they are neither aromantic nor asexual.
22 out of 59 have never said they have been in a relationship before. That's 37%
27 out of 59 are virgins. That's 45%
Out of 32 men who reported not being virgins, 12 reported losing it at 20 or older. That's 37.5%


Out of 86 Women:
74 out of 85 women reported being neither aromantic nor asexual.
43 out of 85 women are currently in a relationship. That's around 50%
Only 12 out of 85 women have never been in a relationship. That's 12%
23 out of 85 women are virgins. That's 27%
Out of 62 women who are not virgins, 15 reported losing it at 20 or older. That's 24%


Conclusion: Women with autism have it easier than men with autism in the realm of dating. They are more likely to have romantic and sexual experience both currently and in the past and are less likely to be romantically and sexually inexperienced at later ages.

While we are both at risk of turning this thread into a "males vs females" war, I agree with you.
I'm not saying it's 100% accurate for both genders, but I do believe that more women on the spectrum find dating easier than men on the spectrum, but friendships for women on the spectrum may be harder to find than for men on the spectrum. This mostly goes for teenagers and 20-somethings, maybe the ratio changes more as an individual gets older.

Here is some updated statistics. This time with 73 men and 119 women.


On your sexuality:

68 out of 73 men identified as neither aromantic nor asexual. (93%)

101 out of 119 women identified as being neither aromantic or asexual. (84%)


Have you ever been in a relationship?

39% of men said no.

12% of women said no.


How old were you when you had your first relationship?

Men:

26 men said they have never been in a relationship before. (35%)

18 men said younger than 18.

11 men said between the ages of 18 to 21.

4 men said between the ages of 22 to 25.

1 man said 28 or 29

1 man said 35 to 39.


Women:

16 women reported never being in a relationship before. (13%)

35 women said younger than 15.

38 women said between the ages of 15 to 17.

21 women said between the ages of 18 to 21.

9 women said between the ages of 22 to 25.

There were no woman who said they had their first relationship older than 25.


How old were you when you had sex for the first time?

Men:

35 men out of 73 said they were virgins. (47%)

13 men said under the age of 18.

15 men said between the ages of 18 to 21.

4 men said between the ages of 22 to 25.

4 men said between the ages of 26 to 29

1 man said between the ages of 30 to 34

Women:

29 out of 119 women said that they were virgins. (24%)

44 out of 119 women said between the ages of 15 to 17. (36%)

10 out of 119 women said they were under 15. (8%)

26 out of 119 women said between the ages of 18 to 21. (21%)

10 women said between the ages of 22 to 25. (8%)

No women reported losing their virginity after the age of 25.


For 34 men and 29 women who identified as being a virgin, how old are they?

Men:

10 of them are currently under the age of 18. (29%)

10 of them are between the ages of 18 to 21. (29%)

5 of them are between the ages of 22 to 25. (14%)

7 of them are between the ages of 26 to 29. (20%)

3 of them are older than 30. (8%)

Women:

1 said they were younger than 15. (3%)

5 said they were 16 or 17. (17%)

8 said they were between 18 to 21. (27%)

7 said they were between 22 and 25. (24%)

2 said they were either 28 or 29. (6%)

6 said they were 30 or older. (20%)


I have a strong desire to be in a romantic relationship:

56 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (76%)

81 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed. (68%)


I am satisfied with how my dating life is going:

19 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed (26%)

51 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed (42%)


I have very little problems with finding dating or sex partners.

9 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (12%)

28 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed (23%)


I have a high sex drive.

47 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (64%)

35 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed (29%)


I frequently feel lonely and depressed about my lack of love life.

43 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (58%)

30 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed. (25%)


If I break up with my partner, I won't have much trouble with finding someone new within a year.

5 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (6%)

17 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed. (14%)


Women have it easier than men in the realm of dating.

39 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (53%)

19 out of 119 women agreed or strongly agreed. (15%)


There needs to be more resources for navigating dating for adults with autism.

54 out of 73 men agreed or strongly agreed. (73%)

92 out of 119 women said yes. (77%)

It's interesting how more women than men responded to this. We've got a lot of lurkers who don't participate in L&D and I think that's a huge issue.

I posted this on various groups on Facebook as well. I believe that's where the majority of women voted from.

This is quite sad. I know that 14% is just over double, but it's still a low percentage.

There's a lot of folks out there stuck in relationships because they're scared of being alone.

You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.

I wonder what percentage of these people are actually happy. How many of these relationships are abusive? How many of these people really love each other or are they just settling and making do?

This is sad too. No majorities are satisfied of either sex. Even though women are more satisfied, that's still sad.

As others have alluded to, surveys need permission from Alex before they can be posted.

I do not believe Alex is in the habit of reviewing requests these days.

As this survey has none of the trappings of a serious academic study (disclaimers, ethics statements, and so forth) I am locking this thread and removing the link.