Perceptions of social support and experience of bullying among pupils with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream secondary schools

Developmental Links Between Disobedient Behavior and Social Classroom Relationships in Boys With Psychiatric Disorders in Special Education

“…With regard to peer relationships, our finding that disobedience has more impact on peer rejection than acceptance, whereas peer rejection and acceptance were equally important for boys' development of disobedience, indicates that both positive and negative peer relationships are important for boys' disobedience development, but that when boys show undesirable behavior, they may easily acquire a 'bad' reputation which is difficult to lose (Baumeister et al 2001). The finding that negative social relationships more strongly impacted boys' classroom behavior than positive social relationships, is especially important for boys in special education, as these children not only already encounter more negative social interactions (Humphrey and Symes 2010;Little and Kobak 2003;Murray and Greenberg 2001), but also receive three times more punishment than children without social-emotional and behavioral disorders (Scott et al 2011). It is thus vital to prevent the development of negative interactional patterns in special educational settings.…”

“…Likewise, children with behavior disorders collaborate less with their teachers (Toste et al 2012) and children with ADHD and behavior problems experience more peer rejection (Hinshaw and Melnick 1995) than children without disabilities. Similarly, social difficulties such as bullying and having less social support are also found among children with autism (Humphrey and Symes 2010;Russel et al 2012). These troublesome social experiences among children with ADHD, ASD and DBD may be problematic because positive social relationships may facilitate children's social and behavioral development whereas negative social relationships may profoundly promote maladjustment (see for a review: Sabol and Pianta 2012).…”

Bullying of children and adolescents with autism spectrum conditions: a ‘state of the field’ review

“…Furthermore, those friendships that are established are characterised by lower centrality, acceptance, companionship, and reciprocity than is typical (Chamberlain, Kasari, and Rotheram-Fuller 2007). Children with ASC also report significantly lower levels of social support than classmates and friends (Humphrey and Symes 2010a). They are often perceived as 'different' by their peers, due to difficulties in understanding and conforming to social norms.…”

“…In order to validate a 'general differences' position (see previous section), there is a need for analyses that compare rates of bullying for children with ASC with those of other children with different SEND. Humphrey and Symes' (2010a) research provides one such example, evidencing a bullying rate approximately three times higher than for children with dyslexia or those with no identified difficulties. In another study, demonstrated that children with ASC were second only to those with behavioural, emotional, and social difficulties in terms of exposure to bullying among a nationally representative sample of students with SEND.…”

“…The social experience of children with ASC reads remarkably similarly. In terms of social status, they are more rejected and less popular than their typically developing peers (Jones et al 2010) and those with other SEND (Humphrey and Symes 2010a) typically have fewer friends (Cairns and Cairns 1994) and more limited social networks (Chamberlain, Kasari, and Rotheram-Fuller 2007) than other children (Locke et al 2013). Furthermore, those friendships that are established are characterised by lower centrality, acceptance, companionship, and reciprocity than is typical (Chamberlain, Kasari, and Rotheram-Fuller 2007).…”