Sexual, physical, and emotional aggression, experienced by autistic vs. non-autistic U.S. college students

Abstract

ObjectiveTo compare rates of aggression victimization for autistic vs. non-autistic U.S. college students. Participants: n = 1,411 autistic and n = 218,430 non-autistic students from 78 colleges. Methods: We used a three-way interaction term to examine moderation of the relationship between autism and sexual, physical and emotional aggression victimization by depression and sense of belonging. Results: Autistic students were nearly twice as likely as non-autistic students to report past-year emotional victimization (44% vs. 26%, p < 0.001), and more likely to report physical victimization (8.4% vs. 5.7%, p < 0.001). Autistic students who experienced sexual assault were 2.23 times more likely than non-autistic students to report it affected academic performance (80.4% vs. 36.0%, p < 0.001). At both low and high levels of depression, sense of belonging was protective against physical and sexual victimization for autistic students more than for non-autistic students. Conclusions: Institutions of higher education should prioritize preventing and responding to interpersonal aggression against autistic students.

Keywords:

• Autism
• abuse
• aggression
• neurodiversity
• violence

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Boston University Medical Campus IRB.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the NIH K18MH122791.