Factors of Bullying Victimization and Perpetration of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: From Nationally Representative Data

Background and Purpose:

Bullying is a serious issue that can have significant negative effects on children's well-being. Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are overrepresented as victims within the bullying dynamic. However, few studies focus on exploring the prevalence of victimization and perpetration in the population group. This study's main purpose is to provide current estimates of bullying among children and youth with ASD. In addition, this study attempts to see whether there are differences in the states of bullying across racial and ethnic groups.,. Finally, this study explored factors that are associated with bullying victimization and perpetration.

Methods:

Data come from the 2020-2021 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), a nationally representative parent-proxy survey of children in the United States. This study focused on 60,809 school-aged (7-17 years) children. Additionally, this study furthered the exploration into 2,238 children who had ASD. Data included measures of experiences of being a victim or a perpetrator of bullying, and social determinants such as income, health insurance, food insecurity, neighborhood environment, and adverse childhood experiences. Analyses focused specifically on exploring whether there are differences in experiences of being a victim or a perpetrator of bullying across racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, analyses explored factors that may impact bullying experience.

Results:

Data suggested that children with ASD had a significantly higher rate of being bullied. 63.3% of children with ASD reported being bullied compared to 37.8% among non-ASD children (χ2= 578.04, p<.001). Children with ASD (25.5%) also had higher rates of being perpetrators of bullying than children without ASD (15.5%; χ2= 160.11, p<.001). White children with ASD had the highest rate of being bullied (68.9%) followed by LatinX (55.3%), Asians (45.6%), and African Americans (37.5%). Whites (28.5%) also had the highest chance of bullying others than LatinX (19.2%), African Americans (16.2%), and Asians (12.8%). 37.6% of ASD children who were victims of bullying were also perpetrators. Logistic Regression analysis found that ASD children who had higher level of flourishing (finish task that they started or stay calm while they face challenge) had a lower chance of being bullied ((Exp(B)=.610, p<.001) and bullying others ((Exp(B)=.456, p<.001). Comorbidity with ADHD was a risk factor for both victimization ((Exp(B)=1.832, p<.001)’ and perpetration ((Exp(B)=.610, p<.001).

Conclusions and Implications:

The result of this study highlights the vulnerability of children and youth with ASD to bullying. Higher rates of bullying experience in the ASD group were consistent across racial and ethnic groups but especially the prevalence was higher in White children. Bullying victimization and perpetration were both associated with externalizing problems (flourishing and ADHD) such as emotional outbursts. This calls for more interventions to train children with ASD to develop social skills and learn alternative behaviors that they can use to be less likely to externalize their problems and positively engage with peers. Most of all, awareness of ASD should be raised on various levels of the environment.