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Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys

Young people with autism are often bullied at school, a potential direct correlate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This may be compounded by their difficulties in social interaction. Alternately, some of these young people may develop ‘coping strategies’ against bullying that may have an i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bitsika, Vicki, Sharpley, Christopher F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34065676
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105285
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author Bitsika, Vicki
Sharpley, Christopher F.
author_facet Bitsika, Vicki
Sharpley, Christopher F.
author_sort Bitsika, Vicki
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description Young people with autism are often bullied at school, a potential direct correlate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This may be compounded by their difficulties in social interaction. Alternately, some of these young people may develop ‘coping strategies’ against bullying that may have an inverse association with PTSD. As a vulnerable population for PTSD, a sample of 71 young males with autism were surveyed for their self-reported experiences of being bullied at school, their coping strategies for dealing with this bullying, and their own evaluations of the severity of two of the key diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Their mothers also provided a rating of the severity of the three major diagnostic criteria for autism for these boys. Over 80% of this sample had been bullied, and there was a significant direct correlation between this and PTSD score, and between their mother-rated severity of the boys’ social interaction difficulties, but also a significant inverse correlation between their coping strategies and PTSD score. There were differences in these relationships according to whether the boys attended elementary or secondary school. These findings hold implications for the identification, assessment and support of autistic youth at risk of PTSD.
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spelling pubmed-81559092021-05-28 Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys Bitsika, Vicki Sharpley, Christopher F. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Young people with autism are often bullied at school, a potential direct correlate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This may be compounded by their difficulties in social interaction. Alternately, some of these young people may develop ‘coping strategies’ against bullying that may have an inverse association with PTSD. As a vulnerable population for PTSD, a sample of 71 young males with autism were surveyed for their self-reported experiences of being bullied at school, their coping strategies for dealing with this bullying, and their own evaluations of the severity of two of the key diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Their mothers also provided a rating of the severity of the three major diagnostic criteria for autism for these boys. Over 80% of this sample had been bullied, and there was a significant direct correlation between this and PTSD score, and between their mother-rated severity of the boys’ social interaction difficulties, but also a significant inverse correlation between their coping strategies and PTSD score. There were differences in these relationships according to whether the boys attended elementary or secondary school. These findings hold implications for the identification, assessment and support of autistic youth at risk of PTSD. MDPI 2021-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8155909/ /pubmed/34065676 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105285 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bitsika, Vicki
Sharpley, Christopher F.
Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title_full Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title_fullStr Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title_full_unstemmed Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title_short Direct and Inverse Correlates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among School-Age Autistic Boys
title_sort direct and inverse correlates of post-traumatic stress disorder among school-age autistic boys
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34065676
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105285
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