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 you fill out this survey. You don't have to log in to your google account and all results will be anonymous.

https://forms.gle/9TYd2YmR4YHQeMcJ6

You ask this question:

Then you ask this question:



And then you ask this question:



Why do you need the age of a person three times if they're a virgin and have never had a boyfriend or girlfriend?

There are some other redundant questions in your survey too, like asking a 'yes' 'no' question about having ever been in a romantic relationship and then asking at what age you had your first girlfriend/boyfriend providing the option 'I have never had a boyfriend or girlfriend before.'.

Now I get that some psychological studies ask redundant questions which helps estimate how consistent people are. However, this really does not make any sense when it comes to age or relationship status. People usually know these things and don't respond based on a changing gut feeling. If they're dishonest they can also remember their answers. I can't think of any other reason to include redundant questions that makes sense in this survey either and think it makes the survey look unprofessional, like someone wrote up a couple of questions in 5 minutes and didn't put any thought into them or how to use or evaluate them.

Done

Here is the link to the spread spreadsheet with the results regarding the autism and dating survey if anybody is interested.

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

One of my favorite questions before doing a survey: Who gets this data? Is this for legitimate research, or is this just another Facebook "I would like to share this questionnaire with my bored friends."

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 this is true, it does NOT automatically mean that autistic women have it easier than autistic men with dating. Autistic women are much more likely to be used for sex &/or get into physically abusive relationships than autistic men do. There's also PLENTY OF EXCEPTIONS to all this too for corse. Just because some autistic women have an easier time getting dates & romantic relationships does NOT automatically mean that all autistic women do. There's some women posters on this forum who find it next to impossible to get into a relationship.

Well,yes Aspie women are more likely to be abused in relationships,but I think it's because they have far more opportunities to date in the first place.How many Aspie men are even in relationships or ever experienced a relationship before? That problem for Aspie/Autistic women is that they can't the right men that will treat them well,and share common interest with them.For us,we can't find anybody at all.We are basically shut out from the dating world completely,which is arguably worse than not able to find the right partner.

Many Aspie/autistic men HAVE been in relationships. Many are married. It’s not the end of the world to be Aspie or autistic.

These sorts of threads are making people more depressed than they need to be under this COVID19 crisis.

I agree with you.

This is, of course, a generality. I'm an autistic female who has never been in a romantic relationship, never been asked on a date, heck, never even had a man look at me twice. Men may generally be expected to do the approaching, but women have to be seen as desireable in some way in order to be approached - simply being female does not automatically make men flock to us and we get our pick.

I thought you were asexual, would it be unwanted attention if men or women were to approach you? I may be attracted to women, but that doesn't mean I am going to approach them just because I am a man. I bet you have had secret admirers that you never knew about.

Yes, I am asexual and wouldn't want that sort of attention anyway - and maybe the thing is that my body language somehow gives that away and that's why I haven't gotten that sort of attention, or I'm just oblivious enough that I haven't picked up on signals that were there. I just feel the need to point out that not all women have it easy in the dating department.

Unless you're morbidly obese,men will likely apporach you(if you were interested in relationships in the first place).Thoughout all my years of living,I don't think a single woman has ever showed any signs of being interested in me,and same could be said for many other Aspie/Autistic males.In your case, men may not have ever showed interest in dating you.However that's a rarity,even for a Aspie/Autistic female standards.For Aspie/Autstic males on the other hand,it's to be expected when no woman is interested in us,and probably even surprsing when anyone does show signs of being interested in a relationship with us.It's like we being removed from the dating world before we even have a chance.No other groups of people(yes including Aspie/Autistic women) have to go though this.Of course there's some Aspie males who do get dates,and there's some aspie women who can't get date,however that's more of a exception than the rule. This isn't to say Aspie/Autistic women overall don't their own issues with dating.However the issues that Aspie/Autistic women face dating wise seems to be lot more mild and fixable,than the issues that Aspie/Autistic men have to deal with.

I'm actually on the slender side, and no man has ever approached me to start a conversation or anything. No one who's seen me in person has shown any interest in me in that regard. I have never been on a date or been asked on a date. But I guess since I'm a woman, there must have been people who showed interest and I just didn't notice, it's impossible that I haven't had any more of a chance at dating than you have Just because I'm in the minority, even the vast minority, does not mean my experience (or lack thereof) is invalid. The fact that I'm asexual and don't want a romantic relationship doesn't change the fact that I haven't had the chance to be in one, either.

I wonder what would happen if you were to ask various guys out. Just because no guys have ever expressed interest in you does NOT automatically mean that no guys would be willing to date you if you were to make the 1st move. Also you might would have lots of guys make a move on you if you used a popular dating site/app. Guys in general tend to have a harder time getting dates on sites/apps than women do.