Childhood Victimization in a National Sample of Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

There are a number of hidden populations in the United States whose victimization goes undetected and unreported. This study aims to assess the victimization experiences of one such population: American children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Utilizing the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ), this study obtained past‐year and lifetime prevalence rates of interpersonal violence in a sample of children with ASDs (N = 262). Results showed that almost 89% of these children had experienced an incident of victimization in their lifetime, while almost as many (82.1%) had experienced an incident within the last year. Among those who had been victimized once within the last year, 92% experienced at least a second victimization within that same time period, pointing to significant levels of poly‐victimization. Risk ratios confirm that if a child experiences an incident of victimization in the past year, s/he is at risk to experience another type of victimization during that time frame, no matter what type of initial victimization exposure was examined. Previous research specifically addressing the victimization of children with ASDs in the United States has been limited and often focuses on a specific form of victimization, such as bullying. Implications include considering the impact of exposure to multiple forms of victimization and addressing the possibility of long‐term trauma resulting from chronic exposure to victimization.

A population-based examination of maltreatment referrals and substantiation for children with autism spectrum disorder

“…The current study addresses the methodological limitations of the existing literature by using a well-established methodology for identifying children with ASD and linking those records to referrals to TNDCS. The finding that children with ASD in the TN-ADDM surveillance area are more than two and one-half times more likely than control children to be referred to TNDCS is generally consistent with previous reports of high rates of child protection encounters for children with disabilities, including ASD (Hall-Lande et al, 2015;Mandell et al, 2005;Pfeffer, 2016).…”

A Systematic Review of Polyvictimization among Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity or Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The five included articles were from USA [7,57], Spain [58], Norway [56], Hong Kong [59], and France [60].…”

“…Parents or major caregivers provided proxy reports. Another study recruited 262 respondents through an online networking collaboration for families affected by autism [57]. Due to Institutional Review Board restrictions around the direct questioning of children with disabilities, the study used caregivers as respondents.…”

“…Chan et al [59] reported a prevalence rate of 30.0% among children with ADHD and 23.5% among children with ASD in the last year. Two studies using JVQ included only children with ASD as target group and found an overall prevalence rate of 36% (experienced last year) and 50.4% (experienced in a lifetime) [57]. The same study reported prevalence rates of emotional abuse (43.7% for lifetime victimization and 31.6% for experienced last year) and physical abuse (20.6% for lifetime victimization and 11.2% for experienced last year) as the highest for child maltreatment.…”

Peer Victimization

“…Multiple studies have shown that those with ASD experience higher rates of peer victimization than TD peers (Bear et al 2015;Chan et al 2018;Humphrey and Symes 2011;Rose et al 2015;Rowley et al 2012;Twyman et al 2010;Wainscot et al 2008;Zeedyk et al 2014) and peers with other disabilities (Humphrey and Symes 2011;Rowley et al 2012;Twyman et al 2010;Zeedyk et al 2014). Parents of children and adolescents with ASD report peer victimization rates ranging from around 40% to 90% across studies (Cappadocia et al 2012;Little 2002;Maiano et al 2016;Pfeffer 2016;Sterzing et al 2012), with variability across studies explained, to some extent, by the time frame used for measuring peer victimization (Maiano et al 2016; e.g., lifetime vs. weekly occurrence). Nevertheless, even if the true rates of peer victimization for this group fall at the lower end of this range that would indicate a substantial number of individuals with ASD are encountering negative peer experiences.…”