An interventional study of Competence in Romance and Understanding Sexual Health (CRUSH) in Autism, Autism Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder, sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 30 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-24.
Sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether the CRUSH curriculum is possible (feasible), whether it fits the needs of the adults it is designed for (acceptable), and shows initial signs of being helpful (efficacious). CRUSH is a group-based behavioral intervention plus 1-1 coaching designed to provide sexual education and improve the skills of autistic adults for intimate relationships.
The main goals of the project are to:
Participants will complete:
There are currently no evidence-based interventions to improve the dating and sexual health of autistic adults. The CRUSH (Competence in Romance and Understanding Sexual Health) Curriculum was designed to address this critical gap, which was piloted with a small group of participants. This study is a pilot program of the CRUSH curriculum for 40 participants to acquire initial feasibility and acceptability data. It will also test the feasibility and acceptability of the measurement battery for potential inclusion in future clinical trials. The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether the CRUSH curriculum is possible (feasible), whether it fits the needs of the adults it is designed for (acceptable), how it works (mechanism), and shows initial signs of being helpful (efficacious). CRUSH is a group-based behavioral intervention plus 1-1 coaching designed to provide sexual education and improve the skills of autistic adults for intimate relationships.
The main goals of the project are to:
Participants will complete:
1,344 studies on the registry are indexed under Autistic Disorder; 334 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 40 is below the median of 45 across 1,044 interventional studies indexed under Autistic Disorder.
Browse Autistic Disorder studies →Boston Children's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 598 studies on the registry; 151 are open to participants now.
Of its 31 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 18 (58%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Participants will receive the CRUSH Curriculum
Behavioral: Competence in Romance and Understanding Sexual Health (CRUSH)
Will be invited to receive the CRUSH intervention at the end of the study period
Manualized curriculum targeting sexual health and behavior in intimate relationships designed to meet the specific needs of autistic adults
Acceptability Rating Scale
This is the primary acceptability outcome. Likert ratings with a 5-pt scale
Time frame: Within one day of each intervention session and at the Baseline, Midpoint (10 weeks), and Post-intervention visit (20 weeks)
Sexual Vocabulary Test - Pragmatics Total Score
This is the primary measure of target engagement. A measure of the ability to provide definitions of sexual health terms to be used as a measure of target engagement - the primary dependent variable measures pragmatic language (e.g., slang) when discussing sexual health terms. Accuracy (knowledge of sexual health terms) is also collected as a secondary variable.
Time frame: At the Baseline, Midpoint (10-weeks), and Post-intervention (20-weeks) visits
Psychosexual Knowledge Test
This is the primary clinical outcome measure and assesses changes in the information participants have. This task was adapted for the first RCT of a sexual health curriculum developed for autistic adolescents to assess changes in information. It includes 35 multiple choice and 2 open-ended items that are scored as correct or incorrect.
Time frame: At the Baseline, Midpoint (10-weeks), and Post-intervention (20-weeks) visits
Feasibility Assessment
Attrition rates; Missing data rates for assessment instruments
Time frame: Within one day of each intervention session and at the Baseline, Midpoint (10 weeks), and Post-intervention visit (20 weeks)
Plan to share: No
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