Exploring the Interpersonal Goals of Autistic and Neurotypical Adolescents Who Bully Others.
Elian Fink, Samantha Friedman, Tjeert Olthof and 3 others
PMID 39690376WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adolescents who valued closeness and friendship were more likely to be identified as bullies, unlike neurotypical peers who bullied to gain status.
This suggests some bullying in autism may stem from social misunderstanding rather than intent to harm.
Key findings
01For autistic adolescents, higher communal goals (valuing closeness and friendship) were associated with greater bullying involvement, whereas agentic goals were not.
02For neurotypical adolescents, agentic goals (valuing dominance) were associated with greater bullying, while communal goals were not.
03The standard questionnaire for interpersonal goals showed poor internal consistency and different item interpretations for autistic adolescents compared to neurotypical peers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that social goals cause bullying behaviour. The autistic group was predominantly male (92%) and recruited from a single specialist school, limiting generalisability to autistic girls or those in mainstream settings. The questionnaire used to measure social goals showed poor reliability for the autistic group and items were interpreted differently between groups, raising questions about whether the tool accurately measured the same constructs in both populations. The age range for the autistic group (11-18) was much wider than for the neurotypical group (11-15).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the link between communal goals and bullying in autistic adolescents as evidence that they are intentionally using friendship to manipulate or harm peers. The authors suggest this may reflect unintentional social misinterpretations, and the measurement tool itself showed validity issues for the autistic group.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →