‘I felt like I deserved it because I was autistic’: Understanding the impact of interpersonal victimisation in the lives of autistic people

Pearson, Amy; Rose, Kieran; Rees, Jon

doi:10.1177/13623613221104546

Cited by 26 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…Disturbingly, they viewed such experiences as commonplace among autistic people, to the extent that it had become something our participants had become used to and had even come to expect. These findings are consistent with the only other study to date investigating the personal accounts of interpersonal violence among autistic adults (Pearson et al, 2022a;2022b), as well as quantitative studies documenting significantly higher rates of peer victimisation and abuse in childhood (Hellstrom, 2019;Mandell et al, 2005;Trundle et al, 2022), and serious violence victimisation in adulthood (Brown et al, 2017;Brown-Lavoie et al, 2014;Gibbs et al, 2022;. As with most of the extant research in this area, our sample of autistic adults were predominantly white and highly educated.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Only one study has explored the impact of interpersonal violence on autistic people. In a sample of 102 autistic adults describing the impact of interpersonal violence perpetrated largely by friends or family, Pearson, Rees, and Rose (2022) found that violence had become normalised, leading to expectations of victimisation and self-blame and that autistic people had developed a range of 'survival strategies' such as masking and people-pleasing. These findings are important but further research is needed to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the disproportionate interpersonal violence experienced by autistic people during adulthood, including in instances where the perpetrator is unknown to the victim.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Together, these findings of autistic people’s heightened risk of experiencing interpersonal violence are deeply concerning, not least for the devastating impact such experiences can have on their physical and mental health and wellbeing (Coker et al, 2002; Dutton et al, 2006; Dworkin et al, 2017; Lagdon et al, 2014; Pearson, Rees, & Rose, 2022). The reasons underpinning these elevated rates, however, remain far from certain.…”

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confidence: 99%

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‘Maybe we just seem like easy targets’: A qualitative analysis of autistic adults’ experiences of interpersonal violence

Gibbs

Pellicano

2023

Autism

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Research has consistently found high rates of victimisation among autistic children. There is emerging evidence that disproportionate victimisation continues into adulthood, however the extent, nature and impact and the mechanisms that underlie high rates of interpersonal violence are not well understood. Here we investigate the nature and impact of violence experiences using qualitative methods. Twenty-two autistic adults who had experienced interpersonal violence during adulthood participated in semi-structured interviews. We analysed the data using a thematic analysis to identify key themes. Violence was commonplace in their own lives and in the lives of other autistic people that they knew, to the extent that violence had become normalised. They spoke of the impacts of these experiences on their mental health, self-concept and subsequent relationships and of how these impacts were exacerbated when their disclosures were dismissed by others. They reported that certain autistic characteristics might make them more vulnerable and of how such characteristics were often shaped by repeated experiences of invalidation and pressure to conform within a neurotypical world. These findings demonstrate the importance of developing ways to improve the personal safety of autistic people which must include the broader social factors that at least partly contribute to these distressing experiences. Lay abstract Research has consistently shown that autistic children are more likely to be victimised than non-autistic children. More recently, studies have also found that autistic adults report experiencing more violence than non-autistic adults however the circumstances surrounding these incidents and the reasons for this are not clear. We wanted to learn more about violence during adulthood for autistic people including what led up to these incidents and what happened afterwards. We spoke to 22 autistic adults who had experienced violence and analysed what they told us to look for common themes. They told us that violence was commonplace in their own lives and in the lives of other autistic people that they know, so much so that they had even come to expect it to happen. They also talked about the negative effect these experiences had on their mental health, the way they felt about themselves and their ability to trust people. This was made worse if people did not believe them when they disclosed what had happened to them. They told us that certain autistic characteristics might make them more vulnerable like being too trusting or going along with people just to please them. They thought that some of these characteristics had been shaped by their experiences, especially being told that that their thoughts, feelings or behaviours were wrong and being pressured to change the way they behaved to ‘fit in’. These findings are important in helping us to understand how to improve the personal safety of autistic people.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘Maybe we just seem like easy targets’: A qualitative analysis of autistic adults’ experiences of interpersonal violence

Gibbs

Pellicano

2023

Autism

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“…However, even with concerted efforts by researchers and policy makers, there is still likely to be a considerable gap between such research and its translation, due to the embedded nature of the social structures that underpin such inequalities. In the meantime, given the elevated rates of violence victimization among autistic people (Brown et al, 2017; Brown‐Lavoie et al, 2014; Gibbs et al, 2021; Griffiths et al, 2019; Reuben et al, 2021; Rumball et al, 2020) and the broad range of debilitating and adverse outcomes often associated with such experiences (Dworkin et al, 2017; Lagdon et al, 2014; Pearson, Rees, & Rose, 2022), it is also important that research focuses on what autistic people and their families and communities/allies can do in their own lives to minimize risk where it is possible or desirable to do so.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From their own accounts, autistic women themselves have described how a tendency to passivity and acquiescence may lead to vulnerability, particularly in close relationships (Bargiela et al, 2016; Sedgewick et al, 2019). In a larger qualitative study investigating experiences of interpersonal victimization, heightened compliance was highlighted by many of the autistic adults as a contributing factor in their experiences (Pearson, Rees, & Forster, 2022; Pearson, Rees, & Rose, 2022). Individual characteristics such as compliance and passivity may be shaped by broader social factors such as pressure to conform, unequal power dynamics in relationships and experiences of social exclusion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poly‐victimization of autistic adults: An investigation of individual‐level correlates

Gibbs,

Hudson,

Pellicano

2023

Autism Research

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Autistic people experience high rates of violence and victimization which is largely due to structural injustices, including stigma and social attitudes. Identifying and addressing systemic and structural factors is vitally important, however effecting change in embedded social structures is likely to take some time, even with concerted efforts. In the meantime, it is important to understand whether there are other individual‐level factors that may assist in developing preventative and protective strategies for autistic people. The current study investigated the role of individual‐level risk factors in the victimization of autistic people. Specifically, we examined whether characteristics that are common among autistic people that is, lower social competence, higher compliance and emotion regulation difficulties or more ADHD features (inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity) were associated with poly‐victimization in a community sample of 228 adults (118 autistic, 110 non‐autistic). Our results show that only ADHD features were predictive of poly‐victimization once socio‐demographic background variables (age, sexual orientation) were adjusted for. Group status was not a significant predictor in the model and there were no interaction effects between any of the characteristics and group status. These findings suggest that, regardless of whether a person is autistic, ADHD features may place individuals at higher risk of experiencing multiple forms of violence in adulthood. Further research using longitudinal designs and larger, diverse samples is needed. Furthermore, the regression model only accounted for about one‐third of the variance in poly‐victimization which highlights the importance of looking beyond individual‐level risk factors to structural and systemic factors that contribute to disproportionate victimization of autistic people.

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Relational incongruence in neurodiverse workgroups: Practices for cultivating autistic employee authenticity and belonging

Longmire,

Vogus,

Colella

2024

Human Resource Management

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Although much research has sought to understand how employees come to align themselves with the social norms and routines of their workgroups, management theory has largely overlooked the possibility that such alignment might be fundamentally at odds with what it means to be autistic. Autism, which accounts for a large share of organizational neurodiversity, is associated with seeing and processing the world differently from the non‐autistic societal norm. In the workplace, autistic employees often experience barriers to inclusion, in large part due fundamental dissimilarities in how they interact with and connect to others. To identify the barriers to autistic employees' workgroup inclusion, we develop a multilevel framework centered around relational incongruence, or differences in patterns of interrelating across (autistic and non‐autistic) neurotypes. We propose that non‐autistic workgroup norms (e.g., for the use of imprecise language) exacerbate relational incongruence, which in turn hinders experiences of authenticity and belonging for the autistic workgroup member. Finally, we identify managerial practices (e.g., relational job crafting) that are likely to protect against the negative consequences of relational incongruence, by fostering workgroup climates of normalized variance in patterns of interrelating and shared understandings across neurotypes.

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‘I felt like I deserved it because I was autistic’: Understanding the impact of interpersonal victimisation in the lives of autistic people

Cited by 26 publications

References 42 publications

‘Maybe we just seem like easy targets’: A qualitative analysis of autistic adults’ experiences of interpersonal violence

‘Maybe we just seem like easy targets’: A qualitative analysis of autistic adults’ experiences of interpersonal violence

Poly‐victimization of autistic adults: An investigation of individual‐level correlates

Relational incongruence in neurodiverse workgroups: Practices for cultivating autistic employee authenticity and belonging

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