Citation

Maïano C, Normand CL, Salvas MC, Moullec G, Aimé A. Autism Res. 2015; 9(6): 601-615.

Affiliation

Department of Psychoeducation and Psychology, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/aur.1568

PMID

26451871

Abstract

The true extent of school bullying among youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) remains an underexplored area. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to: (a) assess the proportion of school-aged youth with ASD involved in school bullying as perpetrators, victims or both; (b) examine whether the observed prevalence estimates vary when different sources of heterogeneity related to the participants' characteristics and to the assessment methods are considered; and (c) compare the risk of school bullying between youth with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers. A systematic literature search was performed and 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. The resulting pooled prevalence estimate for general school bullying perpetration, victimization and both was 10%, 44%, and 16%, respectively. Pooled prevalence was also estimated for physical, verbal, and relational school victimization and was 33%, 50%, and 31%, respectively. Moreover, subgroup analyses showed significant variations in the pooled prevalence by geographic location, school setting, information source, type of measures, assessment time frame, and bullying frequency criterion. Finally, school-aged youth with ASD were found to be at greater risk of school victimization in general, as well as verbal bullying, than their TD peers. Autism Res 2015. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en