“This Was Just How This Friendship Worked”: Experiences of Interpersonal Victimization Among Autistic Adults

Abstract

Background:

The victimization of autistic people by familiar others (interpersonal victimization) is an understudied phenomenon despite suggestions that prevalence rates may be disproportionately high. We know very little about the way autistic people perceive these experiences, and how to support them. The aim of the current study was to explore experiences of interpersonal victimization among autistic adults from their own perspective.

Methods:

We recruited 43 autistic adults to take part in a qualitative online study, and asked about their experiences of being victimized or taken advantage of by people they know in the past. We analyzed their comments at the semantic level using inductive thematic analysis, from a critical realist perspective.

Results:

We identified two key themes in the data. The first theme, “cycles of victimization” highlighted the occurrence of polyvictimization in the sample. The second (“perceptions of victimization”) focused on how these experiences were related to difficulties with trust (of both self and others), the recognition of victimization, and heightened compliance. The participants expressed difficulty with saying no to people, and found it difficult to identify when someone had negative or manipulative intentions.

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that autistic adults experience victimization from a range of close others, and may find it difficult to recognize when someone is acting in an abusive manner. Many participants had experienced heightened compliance in response to unreasonable requests from others, however, reasons for this were varied (e.g., fear and desire to avoid confrontation) and require further investigation. These findings have implications for developing supports that enable autistic adults to recognize their own boundaries and advocate for themselves, in addition to helping them to recognize what a healthy relationship looks like.

Community brief

Why was this study done?

We think that many autistic people experience being hurt by people they know. This can include both physical harm such as hitting, and emotional harm such as being called horrible things. We currently know very little about these experiences, even though we think it happens a lot.

What was the purpose of this study?

The purpose of this study was to find out more about the experiences of autistic people who have been hurt by someone they know, from their own point of view.

What did the researchers do?

Using an online survey, we invited autistic adults who had been hurt by someone they know to write about what had happened to them from their own point of view. Forty-three autistic people wrote about their experiences and we analyzed these data by reading what they had said and looking for patterns (themes) across people.

What were the results of this study?

Many of the participants told us that they had been hurt more than once, by different people (e.g., their parents, and people they thought were friends). Some participants said that they found it difficult to tell whether someone is treating them badly, and to trust their own judgment about other people's behavior. Some people said that they felt like they had do what other people told them to do. Some did this to avoid getting other people into trouble, whereas others did it because they were scared of what would happen if they said no.

What do these findings add to what was already known?

Previous studies have shown that lots of autistic people have been hurt by people they know, and that this has a negative impact on their mental health. Researchers have also asked autistic people what might put them at risk of being hurt by people they know, and how to prevent it. To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly ask autistic people about their own experiences of being hurt by people they know, and highlights what they feel is important for us to know about it.

What are potential weaknesses in this study?

We do not know very much about the people who took part aside from their age and gender (e.g., what their race or ethnicity is), and we do not know much about the people who victimized them (e.g., whether they were neurotypical or autistic themselves), or exactly when it happened.

How will these findings help autistic people now or in the future?

The findings from this study could be used to think about how we can support autistic people in saying no if someone tells them to do something they do not want to do. They can also be used to find ways to help people to recognize when other people are being hurtful. Finally, we hope that reading this study will make other researchers and practitioners interested in learning how to support autistic people who have been hurt by people they know.