Romantic Intimacy in Autism: A Qualitative Analysis

Both groups named similar enablers of intimacy; autistic participants also described uncertainty about relationships and communication.

Sala, G., Hooley, M. & Stokes, M. A. (2020). Romantic Intimacy in Autism: A Qualitative Analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50(11), 4133–4147.

Type

Journal article

Find it

doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04377-8

Checked

Against the abstract, 16 September 2026

Why it is on the list

Thirty-one autistic and twenty-six non-autistic participants answered survey questions about what enables and what blocks emotional and physical intimacy, analysed thematically.

The enablers came out the same for both groups: communication, sharing and similarity, respect and safety for self and other, and working on the relationship. So did one barrier — conflict, within a person and between people. What the authors report as specific to the autistic participants is uncertainty about relationships and communication. Their conclusion: similar notions of intimacy, different challenges in experiencing it.

For OI-1, the reported uncertainty gives a connection to weeks 3 and 9. It does not establish that the course’s decoder or rate-limit model resolves difficulties in romantic relationships.

Note the abstract’s opening clause, which states the clinical framing the authors are writing within. This course cites the findings and does not adopt the framing — the same decision week 2 made about the thin-slice study.