Measuring the Autistic Women’s Experience (AWE)

Abstract

We developed a Dutch questionnaire called the Autistic Women’s Experience (AWE) and compared its psychometric properties to the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). Whilst attenuated gender differences on the AQ have been widely replicated, this instrument may not fully capture the unique experience of autistic women. The AWE was co-developed with autistic women to include items that reflect autistic women’s experience. We investigated the AWE (49 items) and compared it with the AQ (50 items) in Dutch autistic individuals (N = 153, n = 85 women) and in the general population (N = 489, n = 246 women) aged 16+. Both the AQ and AWE had excellent internal consistency and were highly and equally predictive of autism in both women and men. Whilst there was a gender difference on the AQ among non-autistic people (men > women), there was no gender difference among autistic people, confirming all earlier studies. No gender differences were detected on the AWE overall scale, yet subtle gender differences were observed on the subscales. We conclude that the AQ is valid for both genders, but the AWE provides an additional useful perspective on the characteristics of autistic women. The AWE needs further validation in independent samples using techniques that allow for testing gender biases, as well as a confirmatory factor analysis in a larger sample.