Bidirectional relationships between bullying, victimization and emotion experience in boys with and without autism.
Sheida Novin, Evelien Broekhof, Carolien Rieffe
PMID 30073863WHAT IT FOUND
In autistic boys, higher anger and lower guilt tracked with more later bullying, while victimization tracked with more anger and fear.
Fear was linked to victimization more strongly in boys without autism. These are links, not treatment effects.
Key findings
01Higher anger and lower guilt were associated with more bullying over time, and this pattern did not differ by autism group.
02Victimization was associated with more anger, especially in boys with autism.
03Fear was associated with more victimization, especially in boys without autism.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only boys were studied, so the findings may not apply to girls with autism. The autism group was limited to boys with IQ score above 80 and no additional diagnoses, so it says nothing about autistic boys with lower IQ or co-occurring conditions. The supplied text gives the number of boys without autism (96) but not the total number analysed, so the autism group sample size is unknown. The study is observational and did not test an intervention, so it shows associations rather than causal effects. Participants were recruited from specialized facilities, schools, or home settings, so generalizability to other settings is not shown.
Declared interests
Authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The research was supported by a VIDI grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to Carolien Rieffe.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that anger management training reduces bullying or victimization in autistic boys. The study measured self-reported emotions and bullying over three time points; it did not test any intervention.