Self-perceived bullying victimization in pre-adolescents on the autism spectrum: EPINED study.
Autistic 11- to 12-year-olds in Spain report triple the bullying of typical peers, so screen every student with autism for victimization at intake.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Regener et al. (2024) asked 11- and 12-year-old students in Spain how often they were bullied. The team surveyed kids with autism, kids with some autism traits, and kids without autism.
The survey was part of the EPINED project. It used the same questions for every child so the groups could be compared.
What they found
Fifty-eight percent of autistic pre-teens said they had been bullied. That is three times the rate of their neurotypical classmates.
Even children with only mild autism traits reported more bullying than peers without traits.
How this fits with other research
Cappadocia et al. (2012) saw the same problem in a parent survey years earlier. Parents also said kids with autism were bullied far more often.
Aguilar-Mediavilla et al. (2024) warns that self-report can miss some victims. They found children with language disorders were under-counted when only the child was asked. Paula’s team used only self-report, so the true rate in autism might be even higher.
Chang et al. (2024) followed autistic youth for years and showed that bullying partly explains later suicidal thoughts. Paula’s high numbers help us see why that pathway starts so early.
Why it matters
If you work with autistic students in upper elementary or middle school, expect that more than half have already been bullied. Start every intake by asking the child directly about teasing, exclusion, and physical harm. Add a peer or teacher check if you can. Then write goals that teach self-advocacy and build safe social circles before anxiety or depression takes hold.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic individuals face a higher risk of various forms of victimization throughout their lives, with bullying being especially prevalent during their school years. Previous studies indicate that autistic children are 2.4 times more likely to be bullied than their typically developing peers and twice as vulnerable as those with other disabilities. However, the extent of this issue among Spanish schoolchildren with autism remains unexplored. In addition, there is no information regarding the presence of bullying victimization in children with marked but undiagnosed autistic traits (i.e. subthreshold autistic traits). This study examines the self-reported prevalence of bullying victimization in autistic pre-adolescents and those with subthreshold autistic traits, comparing them with peers without neurodevelopmental conditions. The study involved 323 participants (11 and 12 years old; 45 with autism or subthreshold autistic traits) from Spanish general education schools. The results revealed a higher rate of bullying victimization among autistic participants (58%; 3.1 times higher risk) and those with subthreshold autistic traits (27%; 1.5 times higher risk) compared with their peers without neurodevelopmental conditions (18.3%). Victimization was linked to more intense restrictive behaviours and increased behavioural and emotional problems. No significant associations were found with other individual or family factors. Our findings underscore the heightened risk of bullying faced by autistic pre-adolescents and those with subthreshold autistic traits at school, emphasizing the need to identify and implement preventive measures to mitigate bullying and its detrimental impact on their mental well-being and overall quality of life.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613241244875