A Preliminary Study on Recollected Number of Friends and Bully-Victimization Experience in People with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Recollected Number Of Friends
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Abstract
The present study examined developmental trajectories of friendship formation and bullying victimization among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to typically developing peers. Data were collected from 29 ASD, 17 ADHD and 27 typically developed participants via self-administered questionnaires assessing participants' background characteristics and retrospective accounts of friendship experiences and bullying victimization across elementary, junior high, and high school periods. The factors associated with the number of friends, and the experience of bullying victimization were explored by a set of statistical analyses. Individuals with ASD and ADHD consistently reported having fewer friends than their typically developing peers from elementary through high school. Additionally, individuals with ASD and ADHD were more likely to experience bullying victimization during junior high school compared to those with typical development. These findings indicate that early adolescence, particularly during junior high school years, constitutes a critical developmental period for social relationship formation in the neurodivergent population, which underscores the importance of targeted interventions for neurodivergent children during this developmental stage.
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