Prevalence of discrimination experienced by autistic youth as compared to neurotypical youth and youth with other neurodevelopmental diagnoses.
Autistic youth meet more disability-based unfair treatment than any peer group—so ask about it and plan for it.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent surveys to families with kids aged 6-17. They asked how often the child had been treated unfairly because of race, sexual or gender identity, or disability.
They compared answers from autistic youth, youth with ADHD, youth with other delays, and neurotypical youth.
What they found
Autistic youth reported the highest levels of unfair treatment. The gap was biggest for disability-based discrimination.
They also faced more race-based and LGBTQ-based unfair treatment than peers.
How this fits with other research
Magaña et al. (2012) already showed Black and Latino autistic kids get lower-quality health care. The new survey adds a reason: these kids face more discrimination in daily life.
Costa et al. (2020) found LGBTQ+ adults with autism hit more health-care barriers. Menezes et al. (2025) shows the problem starts young—autistic teens already report more LGBTQ-based unfair treatment.
Brereton et al. (2006) used the same survey style to show autistic youth have more mental-health problems than peers with ID alone. Now we see discrimination may be one driver of that stress.
Why it matters
You already screen for skills and behaviors. Add a quick question about unfair treatment at school, clinic, or community events. If the child or parent reports it, write it into the behavior plan. Target coping skills, self-advocacy, and safe adult contacts. Reducing discrimination stress can make your other interventions work better.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic adults have reported experiencing discrimination across settings. Nonetheless, population-based research examining the prevalence of discrimination against autistic individuals has been more limited. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence of types of discrimination (i.e., due to race or ethnicity, due to sexual orientation or gender identity, and due to health condition or disability) experienced by autistic youth (n = 2339) compared to youth with other neurodevelopmental diagnoses (i.e. attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disability, and speech or other language disorder; n = 10,325) and neurotypical youth (n = 44,781) 6-17 years of age utilizing a large, population-based sample. Data for this study were acquired from the 2021-2022 National Survey of Children's Health, a nationally distributed caregiver-report questionnaire. Results found that the prevalence of discrimination due to race or ethnicity and sexual orientation or gender identity was higher among autistic youth than neurotypical youth. Notably, results also found that discrimination due to health condition or disability was far more prevalent among autistic youth than neurotypical youth and youth with other neurodevelopmental diagnoses. Findings highlight the increased prevalence of discrimination experienced by autistic youth and should prompt researchers, policymakers, and vested community members to action to address this problem.Lay abstractAutistic individuals have described facing unfair or discriminatory treatment across settings, such as in school and at work. However, there have been few studies examining how widespread or prevalent discrimination is against autistic individuals. We aimed to fill that gap by examining how prevalent or common it is for autistic youth to experience discrimination based on race or ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, and health condition or disability. We compared rates of discrimination against autistic youth to youth without developmental differences/diagnoses and youth with other developmental differences (i.e. youth diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], learning disability, and speech/language disorders). We analyzed data from the 2021-2022 National Survey of Children's Health, which is a nationwide survey on which parents report about aspects of their children's lives. We found that autistic youth experience higher rates of discrimination based on race or ethnicity and sexual orientation or gender identity compared to youth who are typically developing and do not have a diagnosis (such as a speech or language disorder). Importantly, they also face significantly more discrimination due to their disability than youth with other diagnoses, such as ADHD, and youth without a developmental diagnosis. These results show that autistic youth are at risk for experiencing discriminatory treatment. Our study should motivate researchers, policymakers, and community members to address this critical issue.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2025 · doi:10.1177/13623613241312445