News and Knowledge

That children with autism are bullied is not news to most parents of a child with autism. In fact, a number of research studies have already illuminated the strong correlation between autism and bullying, including a highly publicized report (Sterzing et al., 2012) that was supported in part by OAR funding.  OAR offers a review of this study because it highlights the rates of bullying for children with autism as compared to their peers with special needs and may provide new insight for our readers.

When discussing the hardships that students with autism face in the school environment, bullying is usually near the top of the list. While bullying occurs quite frequently within the general student population, recent findings indicate that children with special needs are at much greater risk of being bullied than their typically developing peers; this victimization has both long- and short-term effects.  This research study delves even deeper by examining whether children with autism are more prone to bullying than children with other disabilities.  The study findings were recently published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Five researchers from two different Canadian universities designed a research study that compares bullying incidents among adolescent boys (ages 11 through 18) with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) to boys with other types of disabilities, as well as typically developing students. Of the 70 study participants, 24 had a diagnosis of HF-ASD, 22 had a learning disorder and/or ADHD, and the remaining 24 had no diagnosis or known developmental delays. Each boy was given a questionnaire that assessed his “experiences of being physically, verbally, and relationally victimized, and experiences with bullying others.”

Not surprisingly, results indicated that boys in the HF-ASD group and learning disorder/ADHD group reported being victimized significantly more than students in the typically developing group. However, a more detailed analysis reveals that students with HF-ASD reported being “left out on purpose” significantly more than students from the other two groups. These students also reported being “hit, kicked or pushed” far more than those from the typically developing group.

The study supports previous findings that students with HF-ASD are at a higher risk of being bullied than their typically developing peers. However, this study brought to light the interesting fact that students with HF-ASD experienced more social exclusion than both their typically developing peers and those students with other common learning disabilities. Additionally, the two groups of students with disabilities were subject to more physical bullying.

While bullying may never completely be eradicated, parents and educators can glean important information from this study. By implementing programs to help students with ASD improve their social interactions, we may see a decrease in social exclusions. Furthermore, implementing peer education initiatives can help typically developing young people see past any perceived differences in their peers with autism.  Parents and teachers can be the catalyst for these changes in their school communities.

Source:

Kloosterman, P.H., et al. (2013). Types and experiences of bullying in adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder.Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7(7), 824-832.