Pathological demand avoidance (PDA): Its four schools of thought

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Woods, R. (2021). Pathological demand avoidance (PDA): Its four schools of thought. Developmental Psychology Forum, 1(94), 10-14. https://doi.org/10.53841/bpsdev.2021.1.94.10

Publication date: 1 Jan 2021 Added to AutiHub: 7 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Richard Woods *

Abstract

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a proposed Disorder, which is sometimes viewed to be an autism spectrum disorder. Is characterised by persistence avoidance of ordinary demands by non-autistic society, with persons frequently displaying social avoidance behaviours which can be considered "manipulative" or "strategic". Presently, there is much controversy surrounding PDA, partly because there is no conclusive evidence to indicate which features comprise PDA, and how it should be conceptualised. Thus, there are competing divergent schools of thought on how to view PDA. This short paper describes the four main worldviews on PDA besides it being an autism spectrum disorder. Firstly, PDA is also conceptualised as "rebranded autism", pathologising characteristics not assessed in an autism diagnosis. Secondly, a common disorder. Finally, PDA could be a pseudo-syndrome resulting from the simultaneous interaction between autism and common co-occurring conditions. I call for treating with PDA caution until good quality scientific method-based research indicates which outlook should be adopted.

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Cited references
29
With a DOI
18
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
11
2 / 29 (6.9%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
7 / 29 (24.1%)
References with detected author names
22 / 29 (75.9%)
Without detected author names
7
Without a structured title
7
Without a stable identifier
11
References with raw author names still to review
7
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
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Author names detected in the cited bibliography
70
From DOI or external metadata
70
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
12
34 / 70 (48.6%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 36 / 70 (51.4%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
2 / 70 (2.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 2 / 34 (5.9%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 48 (2.1%).
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