Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication In Autistic Adults

Open Access
- Author:
- Popovich, Kirk
- Area of Honors:
- Secondary Education
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Amber Walker Jackson, Thesis Supervisor
Becky Moore, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Autism
Gender
Nonverbal Communication
Interpersonal Communication
Autism and Gender
Autism and Nonverbal Communication - Abstract:
- In this paper I will be exploring the effect gender has on understanding nonverbal communication in autistic adults. This data is extremely important for those working in the education field. Interpersonal relationships directly affect one’s ability to succeed, and by better understanding this topic educators can better communicate with other professionals and students’ parents. There is already lots of research on autistic kids but a lack of research on autistic adults. Specifically in this paper, I look at if adult autistic cisgender women have an advantage compared to adult autistic cisgender men and other genders, encompassing anyone’s gender that did not fall within the binary, when it comes to understanding nonverbal communication. The research I conducted concluded that cisgender women do not have an advantage or disadvantage compared to other genders. The results concluded that the largest gender difference came when comparing cisgender men and other genders, though the majority of the data points still suggested no significant difference. There was only one point of significance when comparing cisgender women to cisgender men or others. The data was not what I was expecting based on the established research that repeatedly confirms non-autistic cisgender women are better at understanding and decoding nonverbal communication when compared to non-autistic cisgender men.