“You Are the Expert of Your Own Experience”: A Thematic Analysis of Experiences of Autism and Gender Diversity in Adulthood

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Glackin, A., Pearson, A., & Davis, R. (2023). “You Are the Expert of Your Own Experience”: A Thematic Analysis of Experiences of Autism and Gender Diversity in Adulthood. Autism in Adulthood, 6(3), 300-311. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2022.0111

Journal or book title
Autism in Adulthood
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
6
Issue
3
Pages
300-311
Publication date: 8 Sep 2023 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)
  1. Amelia Glackin
  2. Amy Pearson *
  3. Rachael Davis

Abstract

Background: Autistic people are more likely to report gender dysphoric traits, and transgender and gender-expansive individuals frequently report higher scores on self-report measures of autistic traits. Despite the clear association between autism and gender diversity, there is a dearth of qualitative research exploring the lived experiences of autistic adults. Methods: This study contributes to the evidence base by exploring the strengths and challenges of the intersectional experiences of autism and gender diversity in adulthood. Twelve transgender/gender-expansive autistic people participated in an online semi-structured interview or an open-ended survey, and reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Three main themes were identified: (1) Navigating a gender journey, (2) The impact of social context on self, and (3) Provision of health care. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of acknowledging the unique experiences of being both an autistic and transgender/gender-expansive person to further understand the intersection between autism and gender diversity.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 13:58.

Cited references
35
With a DOI
32
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
2
4 / 35 (11.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 35 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
35 / 35 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
2
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
138
From DOI or external metadata
138
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
64 / 138 (46.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 74 / 138 (53.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 138 (10.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 64 (21.9%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 13 / 119 (10.9%).
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