Research Participants Needed: Parents of autistic, gender-expansive youth

We are passing along information about an opportunity to participate in important research regarding the needs of autistic and gender-expansive youth. There is so little research available in these areas, we want to support any effort to broaden the information available to healthcare providers.

This study is being completed by Melinda Ledlow, a student at Fielding Graduate University. For their dissertation, they are conducting a study to gather information about the experiences of parents/caregivers of autistic gender-expansive* (def) youth. The aim of the study is to use this information to inform providers/helping professionals who work with autistic gender-expansive youth and their families and increase these providers’ ability to support these youth.

Information about the study:

Participation in this study is completely voluntary and confidential. All responses are kept anonymous as no identifying information will be gathered. Participants are eligible if they are fluent in reading English and have an autistic gender-expansive youth 18 y/o or younger. Questions about their experiences will be Likert style questions with ranges such as “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” and “never happens” to “happens all of the time”. Questions at times may cause some discomfort as they ask about emotions and experiences as a parent. Completing this survey is completely voluntary and they can stop at any time. They may also skip any questions that they do not wish to answer. It will take them roughly 15-30 minutes to complete the survey.

Participants will receive no direct benefit from participation in the study. There are no incentives for participating in this study so that it can remain completely anonymous. All participants will receive a resource list upon completion of the study. The resources list will also be available for participants who end the survey early.

*Definition of gender-expansive used in this study: Gender-expansive will be used rather than transgender to be inclusive of all gender minority identities and expressions.

https://fielding.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bpEvAy3ZjE5ILT8