Abstract
Background:
Many services designed to support victims/survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) do not have a specific focus on, or understanding of neurodivergence, which may impact autistic access to meaningful support. The aim of this project was to examine the support and recovery needs of autistic adults who have experienced IPV.
Method:
We recruited 21 autistic adults (mean age = 42) to take part in a semistructured interview about the experience of IPV. We asked questions about their support seeking and recommendations for future intervention. We analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. One author coded all data, engaging in reflexive discussion with the whole team. They then organized these into themes in collaboration with a second team member. These were circulated to the whole team for discussion and refinement.
Results:
We identified three themes in the data, which focused on support and recovery: (1) recovery is a journey (recovery is nonlinear and involves multiple disclosures over time), (2) building better systems (addressing systemic gaps in knowledge and practice and combating under-resourcing), and (3) how we stop this (recognizing potential individual risk factors and increasing relationship education).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that approaches to supporting autistic victims/survivors in recovery need a nuanced, multipronged approach. Intervention should focus on relationship education ensuring access to appropriate therapies and support for individuals and ameliorating systemic issues such as a lack of professional understanding and a lack of practical support for survivors.
Community Brief
Why is this an important issue?
We know that autistic people are more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). However, we do not know very much about what recovery looks like for them or how to provide effective support.
What was the purpose of this study?
The purpose of this study was to find out what recovery from IPV looks like for autistic people and what we can do to improve services that they might encounter when seeking support for IPV.
What did the researchers do?
We interviewed 21 autistic adults about their experiences using semi-structured interviews. We gave people the option to do a spoken interview (n = 16) or to write down their answers (n = 5). We made sure that they felt safe to take part, and that we knew what to do if they became upset. We analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis, which involved looking for patterns in what people had said and then organizing these patterns to identify common themes across participants.
What were the results of the study?
We identified three themes in the data. Theme 1, “Recovery is a journey,” highlighted that recovery does not have an endpoint but tends to start with making disclosures to people about experiences of abuse. Going through the recovery process led people to feel empowered, but the experience of abuse never went away. Theme 2, “Building better systems,” showed that services and supports designed to help people who have experienced abuse often are not suitable for autistic people. The people who work in these services need more training, and services need more funding to do this. Theme 3, “How do we stop this,” suggested that alongside improving support, we can try to prevent IPV happening by recognizing that autistic people might struggle to recognize abuse and provide better education about what healthy relationships look like.
What do these findings add to what was already known?
This is the first study to explore the support and recovery process for autistic people who have experienced IPV. Our findings add much needed guidance about what we can do to develop our understanding of what autistic victims/survivors want during support seeking, and what we can do to improve service provision.
What are potential weaknesses in the study?
All of the people who took part in this study were white, and most were women. It is likely that autistic people from other groups might experience different barriers to support and recovery.
How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?
We hope that our findings will help to services to improve how they work with autistic people who have experienced IPV. We have also used the findings from this (and another) study, to develop a “healthy relationships resource” to help autistic people recognize what healthy relationships look like.
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