Aggressive behavior in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorders
Section snippets
Barriers to aggression research in ASD
The limitations listed above in existing research likely stem, in part, from the low prevalence of ASD relative to other disorders such as ADHD, which makes population-based studies very difficult to perform (Aman & Farmer, in press). A second impediment is the lack of terminological consensus among researchers, which is common to the study of aggression in all fields. This reflects several facts about aggression: it is an emotionally charged term, and it involves social and moral judgment (
Prevalence data in ASD
The few studies of the prevalence of aggressive behavior in ASDs suggest that aggressive behavior is at least as common in children with ASD as in their peers with other IDDs, if not more so. In a study frequently cited as providing one of the first prevalence estimates of problem behavior in a sample with autism, Ando and Yoshimura (1979) presented data on 47 children with autism aged 6–14 years, compared with an ID group (n = 128). The teacher-endorsement rates for the autism group on the
Methods
This study was approved by the Behavioral and Social Sciences Institutional Review Board of our university.
Results
The ASD group had a significantly higher proportion of males than the IDD group (79.3% vs. 51.4%, respectively, p < 0.001). No other significant differences on demographic variables were observed. Group mean scores were subjected to t-tests. The ASD group had significantly higher scores than the IDD group on three subscales: Bullying [M(SD)ASD = 6.6(5.1) vs. M(SD)IDD = 4.2(5.6), p = 0.003], Hostility [M(SD)ASD = 7.2(5.3) vs. M(SD)IDD = 5.3(5.5), p = 0.003], and Physical Aggression [M(SD)ASD = 2.6(2.6) vs. M(SD)
Discussion
Consistent with the few available data, this study indicates that children with ASDs do engage in aggressive behaviors, and that they may indeed display higher rates of some behaviors than children with other disabilities. In this sample, the behaviors on the Bullying and Hostility subscales were of particular concern to raters. Bullying is not usually a behavior ascribed to children with ASDs, so it may be that many of the items represent a reaction to the environment (frustration, desire to
Author note
The data presented in this paper were collected as part of a Master's thesis (C.A.F.) at Ohio State University. The data are also reported upon in the C-SHARP development and psychometric publications, as indicated in the manuscript.
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