Autistic traits, systemising, empathising, and theory of mind in transgender and non-binary adults.

BACKGROUND: Prior research examining autistic traits in gender minority adults has reported mixed findings. Most prior studies did not include non-binary individuals. Little is known about the mechanisms shaping autistic traits in gender minority adults. This study examined autistic traits, as well as constructs related to the extreme male brain theory of autism and the mindblindness theory, in transgender and non-binary adults. METHODS: An online survey was conducted to assess autism-related traits in 323 gender minority adults, including 74 transgender men (individuals assigned female at birth and identify as a man), 95 transgender women (individuals assigned male at birth and identify as a woman), 104 non-binary AFAB (individuals assigned female at birth and identify as non-binary), and 50 non-binary AMAB (individuals assigned male at birth and identify as non-binary). Autistic traits, systemising, empathising, and Theory of Mind (ToM) were measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the short forms of the Systemising Quotient (SQ-Short) and the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short), the 10-item version of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-10) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Eyes Test). Participants' scores on these measures were compared with previously published scores based on large-scale general population samples including thousands of participants. RESULTS: On average, compared with control females in the general population samples, both transgender men and non-binary AFAB scored significantly higher on the AQ and the SQ-Short but scored significantly lower on the EQ-Short, the EQ-10, and the Eyes Test. No clear or consistent group differences emerged when transgender women and non-binary AMAB were compared with control males. LIMITATIONS: The present study does not have a large sample of gender minority adults. It has been argued that the measures employed may not provide a precise assessment of the psychological constructs of interest. The present study has a "non-clinical" sample. However, not all gender minorities have access to or require clinical services, and so a "non-clinical" sample may be more representative of the gender minority community as a whole than samples recruited through clinics. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings suggest a "masculinised" autism-related profile and reduced ToM in transgender men and in non-binary AFAB. These findings might be interpreted to support the extreme male brain theory of autism and the mindblindness theory. Further research is needed to corroborate these findings

Preschool Gender-Typed Play Behavior Predicts Adolescent Gender-Typed Occupational Interests: A 10-Year Longitudinal Study.

There are significant gender differences in both play behavior and occupational interests. Play has been regarded as an important medium for development of skills and personal characteristics. Play may also influence subsequent preferences through social and cognitive processes involved in gender development. The present study investigated the association between gender-typed play behavior in early childhood and gender-typed occupational interests in early adolescence. Participants were drawn from a British longitudinal population study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Participants were recruited based on their parent-reported gender-typed play behavior assessed at age 3.5 years. There were 66 masculine boys and 61 masculine girls, 82 feminine boys and 69 feminine girls, and 55 randomly selected control boys and 67 randomly selected control girls. At age 13 years, the participants were administered a questionnaire assessing their interest in gender-typed occupations. It was found that masculine children showed significantly more interest in male-typical occupations than did control or feminine children. Compared with control children, feminine children had marginally significantly lower interest in male-typical jobs. Masculine children also had significantly lower interest in female-typical jobs than did control or feminine children. The associations were not moderated by gender and were observed after taking into account sociodemographic background, parental occupations, and academic performance. The degree of gender-typed play shown by preschoolers can predict their occupational interests 10 years later following transition into adolescence. Childhood gender-typed play has occupational implications that transcend developmental stages

Childhood gender-typed behavior and adolescent sexual orientation: A longitudinal population-based study.

Lesbian and gay individuals have been reported to show more interest in other-sex, and/or less interest in same-sex, toys, playmates, and activities in childhood than heterosexual counterparts. Yet, most of the relevant evidence comes from retrospective studies or from prospective studies of clinically referred, extremely gender nonconforming children. In addition, findings are mixed regarding the relation between childhood gender-typed behavior and the later sexual orientation spectrum from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively lesbian/gay. The current study drew a sample (2,428 girls and 2,169 boys) from a population-based longitudinal study, and found that the levels of gender-typed behavior at ages 3.5 and 4.75 years, although less so at age 2.5 years, significantly and consistently predicted adolescents' sexual orientation at age 15 years, both when sexual orientation was conceptualized as 2 groups or as a spectrum. In addition, within-individual change in gender-typed behavior during the preschool years significantly related to adolescent sexual orientation, especially in boys. These results suggest that the factors contributing to the link between childhood gender-typed behavior and sexual orientation emerge during early development. Some of those factors are likely to be nonsocial, because nonheterosexual individuals appear to diverge from gender norms regardless of social encouragement to conform to gender roles. (PsycINFO Database RecordThe UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 102215/2/13/2) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This specific study was supported by a Cambridge International Scholarship awarded to Gu Li and by research funding from the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge

The early postnatal period, mini-puberty, provides a window on the role of testosterone in human neurobehavioural development.

Experimental research in non-human mammals indicates that testosterone exposure during early periods of rapid brain development has enduring influences on brain and behaviour. These influences are exerted when testosterone is higher in developing males than females, and the affected characteristics are those that differ by sex. Testosterone is higher in males than in females from about weeks 8 to 24 of human gestation and then again during early infancy, and both of these periods are times of rapid brain development. Substantial evidence suggests that testosterone prenatally influences human neurobehavioral development. Emerging evidence suggests that the early postnatal period is important too. This early postnatal period could provide a window for studying testosterone interacting with experience to shape human gender development.The authors’ work on which this report was based was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (HD24542), by the Economic and Social Research Council ((ES/J500033/1; ES/I901957/1; ES/H016406/1) and by the University of Cambridge.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by Elsevier

No relationship between early postnatal testosterone concentrations and autistic traits in 18 to 30-month-old children.

BACKGROUND: Some previous research has suggested that testosterone prenatally contributes to gender differences in autistic traits, but little is known about the role of testosterone during early postnatal development (mini-puberty). Two prior studies found no sex difference in testosterone postnatally in saliva samples and detected little to no relationship between testosterone postnatally and autistic traits in toddlers. These findings may reflect late measurements of testosterone at 3 to 4 months of age, after the peak of mini-puberty at 1 to 3 months of age. The present study examined the relationship between testosterone at 1 to 3 months of age and autistic traits at 18 to 30 months of age. FINDINGS: Testosterone was measured in saliva samples collected from children at 1 to 3 months of age. When the children (40 boys, 47 girls) reached 18 to 30 months of age, parents completed the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT). Boys had higher concentrations of testosterone postnatally and higher Q-CHAT scores than girls. However, testosterone did not correlate with Q-CHAT scores in boys, girls, or the entire sample. CONCLUSIONS: The current results suggest that testosterone during the early postnatal period does not contribute to later autistic traits. Given our relatively small samples and therefore limited power, however, further research could usefully examine if testosterone in saliva samples collected during the peak of mini-puberty in larger groups predicts autistic traits or other traits that show gender differences.This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council ((ES/J500033/1; ES/I901957/1; ES/H016406/1) and the University of Cambridge.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from BioMed Central via https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0078-

Emotional and behavioral adjustment in 4 to 11-year-old boys and girls with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia and unaffected siblings.

It has been suggested that atypical hormone environments during early development may contribute to subsequent development of psychopathology. Also, it has been suggested that individuals with the autosomal recessive genetic variant, classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), might be at increased risk of psychopathology. The present study examined emotional and behavioral adjustment in young children with CAH and their unaffected siblings in the United Kingdom. The parent-reported version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was employed to assess adjustment in children aged 4 to 11 years. There were 38 boys with CAH, 43 girls with CAH, 23 unaffected brothers, and 31 unaffected sisters. No differences in emotional or behavioral problems were found between boys or girls with CAH and unaffected same-sex siblings. In addition, affected and unaffected boys in the current sample generally did not differ from boys in the general population. However, compared with girls in the general population, girls with CAH had more difficulties related to conduct problems, hyperactivity/ inattention, and prosocial behavior, and unaffected sisters had more difficulties related to peer problems, conduct problems, and prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that both girls with CAH and unaffected sisters of girls or boys with CAH may be at increased risk of developing behavioral problems. Potential influences related to the early hormone environment, familial process, and social stigma are considered.USPHS National Institutes of Health grant numbers [HD24542

No relationship between prenatal androgen exposure and autistic traits: convergent evidence from studies of children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and of amniotic testosterone concentrations in typically developing children.

BACKGROUND: There is a marked male preponderance in autism spectrum conditions. The extreme male brain theory and the fetal androgen theory of autism suggest that elevated prenatal testosterone exposure is a key contributor to autistic traits. The current paper reports findings from two separate studies that test this hypothesis. METHODS: A parent-report questionnaire, the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST), was employed to measure autistic traits in both studies. The first study examined autistic traits in young children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition causing unusually high concentrations of testosterone prenatally in girls. Eighty one children with CAH (43 girls) and 72 unaffected relatives (41 girls), aged 4-11 years, were assessed. The second study examined autistic traits in relation to amniotic testosterone in 92 typically developing children (48 girls), aged 3-5 years. RESULTS: Findings from neither study supported the association between prenatal androgen (testosterone) exposure and autistic traits. Specifically, young girls with and without CAH did not differ significantly in CAST scores and amniotic testosterone concentrations were not significantly associated with CAST scores in boys, girls, or the whole sample. CONCLUSIONS: These studies do not support a relationship between prenatal testosterone exposure and autistic traits. These findings augment prior research suggesting no consistent relationship between early androgen exposure and autistic traits.National Institutes of Health (Grant ID: R01HD024542)This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.1260

Early postnatal testosterone predicts sex-related differences in early expressive vocabulary.

During the first few years of life, girls typically have a larger expressive vocabulary than boys. This sex difference is important since a small vocabulary may predict subsequent language difficulties, which are more prevalent in boys than girls. The masculinizing effects of early androgen exposure on neurobehavioral development are well-documented in nonhuman mammals. The present study conducted the first test of whether early postnatal testosterone concentrations influence sex differences in expressive vocabulary in toddlers. It was found that testosterone measured in saliva samples collected at 1-3 months of age, i.e., during the period called mini-puberty, negatively predicted parent-report expressive vocabulary size at 18-30 months of age in boys and in girls. Testosterone concentrations during mini-puberty also accounted for additional variance in expressive vocabulary after other predictors such as sex, child's age at vocabulary assessment, and paternal education, were taken into account. Furthermore, testosterone concentrations during mini-puberty mediated the sex difference in expressive vocabulary. These results suggest that testosterone during the early postnatal period contributes to early language development and neurobehavioral sexual differentiation in humans.This research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J500033/1; ES/I901957/1; ES/H016406/1) and the University of Cambridge.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.03.00