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. 2019 Apr;23(3):796-800.
doi: 10.1177/1362361318787446. Epub 2018 Aug 3.

Bidirectional relationships between bullying, victimization and emotion experience in boys with and without autism

Sheida Novin  1 , Evelien Broekhof  2 , Carolien Rieffe  2   3   4
Affiliations

Bidirectional relationships between bullying, victimization and emotion experience in boys with and without autism

Sheida Novin et al. Autism. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Adolescents with autism are more often victims of bullying than peers without autism. Although prior work indicates that emotions play an important role, bidirectional relationships are yet unknown. This study examines the longitudinal associations of anger, fear, guilt and shame with being victimized and bullying others in adolescent boys with and without autism. On three occasions (9 months in between) 169 boys (43% with autism, 11.6 years at T1) completed self-reports. Findings show that more anger and less guilt predicted bullying behaviour, and vice versa, in both groups. In addition, more anger and fear predicted victimization. Fear was a stronger predictor in boys without autism. In turn, victimization predicted more anger, fear and shame. Especially, boys with autism reported more anger after being bullied, suggesting a tenacious vicious circle: these youngsters are likely to be angered when being bullied, which, in turn, makes them a target for bullies. Our findings provide new theoretical insights in the role emotions play in the emergence and maintenance of victimization/bullying others in boys with and without autism.

Keywords: anger; autism spectrum disorders; fear; guilt; shame; social development.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(a) Longitudinal graphic representation of the interrelation of fear with victimization. Boys with a higher mean score of fear reported more victimization over time compared to boys with a lower mean score of fear. This relation is stronger in boys without autism. (b) Longitudinal graphic representation of the interrelation of victimization with anger. Boys with a higher mean score of victimization reported more anger over time compared to boys with a lower mean score of victimization. This relation is stronger in boys with autism. Lines for boys without autism are displayed in grey and lines for boys with autism are presented in black. Dotted lines represent 95% confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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