Prevalence and Risk-Markers of Self-Harm in Autistic Children and Adults.
Lucy Licence, Chris Oliver, Jo Moss and 1 others
PMID 31655964WHAT IT FOUND
In autistic children and adults without intellectual disability, 24% self-harmed in the past month.
Those who self-harmed had significantly lower mood and higher impulsivity and overactivity than those who did not.
Key findings
0124.1% of participants engaged in self-harm in the preceding month.
02Participants who engaged in self-harm had significantly lower mood and higher scores for overactivity and impulsivity than those who did not.
03Lower mood and higher impulsivity/overactivity significantly predicted the likelihood of engaging in self-harm.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Self-harm was reported by parents or guardians, not the participants themselves. This may under-report the behaviour because self-harm is often concealed. The sample was recruited via a parent support charity and was predominantly male (80.7%), which limits generalisability to females and the wider autistic population. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether low mood and impulsivity cause self-harm or result from it. The measure of self-harm did not explicitly include self-cutting, which is a common form of self-harm in autistic people.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Cerebra and the Economic and Social Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that low mood and impulsivity cause self-harm. This study was cross-sectional and only shows an association, not a causal link.