Poly-victimization of autistic adults: An investigation of individual-level correlates.
ADHD traits drive repeated victimization in autistic adults, so safety plans should focus on impulsivity and social vigilance, not autism symptoms alone.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gibbs et al. (2023) asked which traits put autistic adults at risk of being victimized many times.
They gave surveys to a mixed group of autistic and non-autistic adults. They counted how often each person had been robbed, bullied, assaulted, or scammed. Then they checked if autism diagnosis or ADHD traits predicted more victimization.
What they found
ADHD traits—like acting on impulse or missing social cues—predicted repeated victimization.
Surprisingly, having an autism diagnosis by itself added no extra risk. The danger came from ADHD, not from autism.
How this fits with other research
Egan et al. (2020) saw the same pattern: ADHD traits, not ASD traits, predicted demand-avoidant behavior in adults. Together these studies show ADHD is the active ingredient in several adult problems.
Wilmut et al. (2013) and Reus et al. (2013) already warned that ADHD inflates parent and self-report scores in people with ASD. Vicki’s team extends that warning to safety planning: ignore ADHD and you miss the real risk.
Bramham et al. (2009) and Nydén et al. (2010) mapped distinct cognitive profiles for adult ADHD versus ASD. Their work supports treating ADHD traits as a separate target when you assess victimization risk.
Why it matters
If you write behavior plans or safety goals for autistic adults, screen for ADHD symptoms first. Teach impulse-control, stranger-awareness, and online safety skills. Targeting core autism alone may leave the biggest risk factor untouched.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
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.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2023 · doi:10.1002/aur.3031