Thread by @journalautism

New paper (by @DrAmyPearson @KieranRose7 @Jon_C_Rees) explores the impact of IPV on autistic adults

“I felt I deserved it because I was Autistic”: Understanding the Impact of Interpersonal Victimisation in the Lives of Autistic People

🧵by @DrAmyPearson

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Autistic adults are more likely to experience IPV, and this may explain high rates of PTSD. We wanted to explore the impact that this has on them, what the barriers to help-seeking are, and what we can do to improve support. We used Frosts process model of stigma as a framework.

We recruited 102 autistic adults to take part in an interview, via online survey with open text, or spoken video chat. 100 people gave written interviews, and 2 gave spoken. This data was entered into nVivo (qual analysis software).

We asked questions about people's experiences, the impact, whether they had sought or been offered help, and what help they would like to see in future (all questions here: osf.io/wvnj2/ )

98 speaking and 4 non-speaking people took part. Most participants were female (64), white (89), from the UK (61), non-hetero (62). All were aged between 19-73 (avg. 37) and most were multiply disabled (80).

We used #thematicanalysis to analyse the data. I read each interview multiple times and made notes. I created deductive codes using Frosts model, and also added inductive codes as I went. I coded at the semantic (word based), and also at the latent (meaning below words) level.

Analysis took a LONG time. The data was upsetting to read and I needed a lot of breaks. When coding was finished, I sent all data to @KieranRose7 and @Jon_C_Rees . Kieran and I met to discuss, and start to organise into themes. We reorganised these until we had the final set

Supporting data (with example quotes and codes) can be seen at: osf.io/d64p5/
What we found was pretty devastating. Our ppts. felt that violence against them was a standard expectation, and was normalised. Many felt that they deserved it...

This feeling was based upon a lifetime of being 'othered' and made to feel like they were lesser. These experiences led to masking, fawning (extreme people pleasing) and had a huge cost: many had experienced burnout...

To cope, some people had completely isolated themselves socially, and didnt interact with others if they could help it. Others had started to make sense of their experiences, & felt that knowing that they were autistic had helped with this (self insight on all levels)...

Most who had sought support had not had a good experience- accusations of lying from police, therapists with a lack of understanding, and traumatic experiences of mental health professionals that made things 'worse'...

Good support had come from compassionate, person-centered therapists willing to work differently, and from other friends and partners through who ppts. had learned about unconditional love, and trust...

Importantly, community was seen as essential. Validation, advocacy, and intersecting (e.g. queer autistic spaces) was highly valued.

These findings provide insight into how we can support autistic people (funding to grassroots support groups, early interventions with non-autistics to combat stigma). We have provided a full report on better support here: osf.io/5y8jw/

Thank you to @DrAmyPearson for doing this important work and for writing this thread. You can find the full paper below ⬇️

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…