Bullying Trajectories From Childhood to Adolescence: The Relationship With Mental Health Outcomes for Autistic and Neurotypical Youth.
Chronic bullying locks most autistic youth into a path that ends in worse mental health at 17.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Deniz et al. (2026) tracked the same kids from age 3 to 17. They asked parents, teachers, and the teens themselves about bullying every year.
The team used math models to sort each child into a bullying path: none, short-term, or chronic. They also recorded mental-health scores at age 17.
What they found
Three out of four autistic youth landed in the chronic bullying path. Only one in three typical peers did.
The chronic group showed worse anxiety, mood, and self-esteem at 17. Social support helped a little, but did not erase the damage.
How this fits with other research
Maïano et al. (2016) pooled 17 earlier studies and found 44% of autistic students are bullied. The new numbers look higher because it followed kids longer and counted repeated harm, not just one-time events.
DeNigris et al. (2018) seems to disagree: their autistic college students said chronic bullying later boosted self-acceptance. The gap is age and survivor bias—only the resilient stayed in college.
Melegari et al. (2025) adds that high parenting stress makes bullying hurt more. Emre’s work now shows the damage starts early and lasts.
Why it matters
Screen for bullying at every IEP meeting. Ask the child, not just adults. Build social supports early—clubs, peer buddies, safe adults. Treat chronic victimization as a mental-health red flag, not a rite of passage.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one direct question about peer victimization to your intake form and follow up if the answer is yes.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic youth are more likely to be involved in bullying, have poorer mental health, and experience friendships and social support differently compared to neurotypical youth. What remains unclear is whether the relationship between bullying and mental health is different for autistic and neurotypical youth and whether friendships and social support moderate this relationship. In this United Kingdom-based population-based study, we investigated the relationship between bullying involvement, victimization, and perpetration, from early childhood (age 5 years) through to mid-adolescence (age 14 years) with mental health outcomes in later adolescence (age 17 years) for autistic (n = 576) and neurotypical youth (n = 14,963). We used parent-, teacher-, and self-reports of bullying at ages 5, 7, 11, and 14 years to identify five bullying trajectory groups (uninvolved, adolescent victim, early childhood victim, early childhood bully, and bully-victims). Autistic youth were more likely than their neurotypical peers to be in one of the bullying trajectory groups compared to being in the uninvolved group. Specifically, 74% of autistic youth experienced bullying either as victims, bullies, or bully-victims between early childhood and adolescence compared to 38% of neurotypical youth. Both autistic and neurotypical youth who were involved in bullying, whether as a perpetrator or victim, experienced poorer subsequent mental health later in adolescence. Higher perceived social support buffered the effects of bullying involvement for neurotypical and, to a lesser extent, autistic youth. These findings highlight the need for further research focusing on possible targets for intervention to mitigate the possible impacts of bullying on subsequent mental health for autistic youth.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2026 · doi:10.1002/aur.70227