Prompt Dependency Beyond Childhood: Adults With Asperger's Syndrome and Intimate Relationships

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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Wilson, B., Beamish, W., Hay, S., & Attwood, T. (2014). Prompt Dependency Beyond Childhood: Adults With Asperger's Syndrome and Intimate Relationships. Journal of Relationships Research, 5. https://doi.org/10.1017/jrr.2014.11

Publication date: 1 Jan 2014 Added to AutiHub: 7 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Bronwyn Wilson
  2. Wendi Beamish
  3. Stephen Hay
  4. Tony Attwood *

Abstract

Many children on the autism spectrum are dependent on prompts provided by adults for staying on-task, completing activities and transitioning between activities in the home, school and community environments (Bryan & Gast, 2000; Milley & Machalicek, 2012). Yet, prompt dependency beyond childhood has received little attention. This study explored the possibility that prompt dependency also applies to adults diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (AS) when interacting with their neurotypical partner. In-depth interviews with nine couples (ages ranging from 29 to 69) were used to explore intimate relationships between partners in order to determine whether prompt dependency was evident. A grounded theory research strategy was applied to analyse interview data. Data analysed through constant comparison coding supported the hypothesis that adults with AS in the sample showed prompt dependency in their interactions with their partners. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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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: 12 Sep 2026 01:04.

Cited references
77
With a DOI
42
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
28
2 / 77 (2.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 77 (6.5%)
References with detected author names
72 / 77 (93.5%)
Without detected author names
5
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
23
References with raw author names still to review
3
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
130
From DOI or external metadata
130
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
5
7 / 130 (5.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 123 / 130 (94.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
2 / 130 (1.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 2 / 7 (28.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 128 (0.8%).
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