The Gender and Autism Project (GAP) at UNC Chapel Hill is a research team committed to (1) identifying gaps in the healthcare of youth at the intersection of autism and gender diverse identities and (2) developing resources for youth, families, and providers. Our team includes expertise from multiple disciplines and departments at UNC Chapel Hill and is informed by a community advisory board of autistic gender-diverse youth, parents, and healthcare providers.

Gender diverse identities are up to four times more common in autistic adolescents compared to the general population (George & Stokes, 2018; Hisle-Gorman, 2019). Though clinical care exists for each population, the intersection between the two identities is often not addressed. This is problematic because adolescents with both autism and gender diversity have elevated vulnerabilities for psychiatric disorders (Van Der Miesen et al., 2016, 2018), and suicidality (Winter et al., 2016), major health conditions, and discrimination and victimization (Strang et al., 2020) compared to peers with just one of these identities. It is critical that providers and researchers unite their expertise to address the needs of individuals at this intersection to improve the health outcomes of this population.

Contact Us: GAP@unc.edu

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