“This was just how this friendship worked”: Experiences of Interpersonal Victimisation in Autistic Adults

Abstract

Background: The victimisation of autistic people by familiar others (interpersonal victimisation) is an understudied phenomenon despite suggestions that prevalence rates may be disproportionately high. We know very little about the way autistic people perceive these experiences, and how to support them. The aim of the current study was to explore experiences of interpersonal victimisation among autistic adults from their own perspective. Method: We recruited 43 autistic adults to take part in a qualitative online study, and asked about their experiences of being victimised or taken advantage of by people they know in the past. We analysed their comments at the semantic level using inductive thematic analysis, from a critical realist perspective. Results: We identified two key themes in the data. The first theme, ‘cycles of victimisation’ highlighted the occurrence of polyvictimisation in the sample. The second (‘perceptions of victimisation’) focussed on how these experiences were related to difficulties with trust (of both self and others), the recognition of victimisation, and heightened compliance. The participants expressed difficulty with saying no to people, and found it difficult to identify when someone had negative or manipulative intentions. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that autistic adults experience victimisation from a range of close others, and may find it difficult to recognise when someone is acting in an abusive manner. Many participants had experienced heightened compliance in response to unreasonable requests from others, however reasons for this were varied (e.g. fear, desire to avoid confrontation) and require further investigation. These findings have implications for developing supports which enable autistic adults to recognise their own boundaries and advocate for themselves, in addition to helping them to recognise what a healthy relationship looks like.