Middle-Class Mother's Perceptions of Peer and Sibling Victimization among Children with Asperger's Syndrome and Non-Verbal Learning Disorders

L, Little, Issues in Comprehensive Paediatric Nursing, 25: 43 - 57, 2002.

This article describes the yearly prevalence and frequency of peer and sibling victimisation as reported by a large national sample of middle-class mothers of children with Asperger's Syndrome and nonverbal learning disorders. An anonymous mailed survey was sent to families solicited from two national Internet sites for parents of children with Asperger's and nonverbal learning disorders using the Comprehensive Juvenile Victimisation scale and three questions designed to measure peer shunning. The overall prevalence rate reported by mothers of peer victimisation was 94%. Mothers reported that almost three quarters of their children had been hit by peers or siblings in the last year and 75% had been emotionally bullied. On the more severe end of peer victimisation, 10% of the children were attacked by a gang in the past year and 15% were victims of nonsexual assaults to the genitals. Peer shunning also was common. A third of the children had not been invited to a single birthday party in the past year, and many were eating alone at lunch or were picked last for teams. Peer shunning was significantly correlated with peer bullying and assault. The high rates of peer shunning and peer victimisation reported suggest that children with Asperger's and nonverbal learning disorders may require further scrutiny and attention concerning their victimisation experiences by peers and siblings. Implications for nursing professionals are reviewed.

The aim of this study were twofold: one was to explore and describe preliminary data on mother's perceptions of the prevalence and frequency of peer victimisation and peer shunning of their children with AS and NLD. Two, the study was to examine the relationship between such child characteristics as age, gender, and diagnosis with peer victimisation. Knowledge resulting from this study may help to expand professional understanding of the social and structural determinants of peer victimisation in children with AS and NLD. Family participation was obtained by posting a letter of invitation to parents on two international Internet web sites for parents and children with NLD and AS. Of the 728 surveys mailed out, 509 parents responded, yielding a 70% response rate. Among families who met the eligibility requirements, a total of 411 surveys were completed by mothers and used for this data analysis. A total of 411 youth between the ages of 4 and 17 were in the sample, with a mean age of 10.48 years (SD = 3.30). Peer and sibling victimisation were measured using a scale from the Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire (JVQ) (Hamby & Finkelhor, 1999).

Peer victimisation was common. Fully 94% of the mothers reported that peers had victimised their child in some fashion within the past year. The most frequently reported method of peer victimisation was bullying by peers and siblings, reported by 75% of the respondents. This was followed by peer or sibling assaults (73%). The least reported type of victimisation, and the most severe, was peer gang attacks, where 10% of the parents reported that their child had been attacked by a gang of kids in the past year. The overall prevalence rates for peer shunning show that in the past year, 33% of the sample (35%) respondents reported that their child had not been invited to a friend's birthday part, 31% reported that their child was almost always picked last for teams, and 11% reported that their child sat alone at lunchtime everyday. When specific types of peer victimisation from this study were compared with rates from two national samples of children, the differences were notable. Peer and sibling assault was eight times higher for the sample of children with AS and NLD than for a national sample of youth in a large Internet safety study. They also were twice as high as a large representative sample of children in a National Youth Victimisation Project. The rate of gang attacks was five times higher for children with AS or NLD than the national Internet sample. Reported bullying rates for the children with AS and NLD were four times as high as those in the national Internet sample. Finally, nonsexual genital assaults also were higher for the children with AS and NLD. Data on age differences and peer victimisation suggest that junior high school and high school children with AS and NLD are at greater risk for peer shunning, bullying and gang attacks. This is a time when social skills are increasingly in demand and become more sophisticated.