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Is Bullying Associated with Emerging School Refusal in Autistic Boys?

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Abstract

The experience of being bullied is widespread among autistic youth. Relatively little empirical work has been done on the relationship between the bullying of these youth and school refusal (SR). This study of 67 school-age autistic boys (M = 11.7 years, SD = 2.3 years) examined several factors that may contribute to SR. Data regarding boys’ age, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), key ASD diagnostic criteria, and frequency of being bullied were collected. Results indicated that, while boys displaying emerging SR also had significantly higher GAD and MDD than boys without emerging SR, only the frequency of being bullied made a significant contribution to emerging SR. Implications for prevention and treatment of SR among autistic youth are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

No funding was received for this study. The authors gratefully acknowledge the boys and their mothers who participated in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain-Behaviour Research Group, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2350, Australia

    Vicki Bitsika & Christopher F. Sharpley

  2. Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    David A. Heyne

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  1. Vicki Bitsika
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Vicki Bitsika and Christopher Sharpley. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Christopher Sharpley and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Christopher F. Sharpley.

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Bitsika, V., Heyne, D.A. & Sharpley, C.F. Is Bullying Associated with Emerging School Refusal in Autistic Boys?. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1081–1092 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04610-4

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