“It’s a Long Process, and It’s a Long Journey”: Autistic Adult’s Experiences of Support and Recovery after Experiencing Intimate Violence and Abuse

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. four authors of this publication are identified as autistic in the project.

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Pearson, A., Rose, K., Mitchell, A., Joseph, W., Douglas, S., Sedgewick, F., & Botha, M. (2024). “It’s a Long Process, and It’s a Long Journey”: Autistic Adult’s Experiences of Support and Recovery after Experiencing Intimate Violence and Abuse. Autism in Adulthood, 8(3), 373-384. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0146

Publication date: 13 Nov 2024 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
4 / 7 (57.1%)
  1. Amy Pearson *
  2. Kieran Rose *
  3. Alex Mitchell
  4. Wendy Joseph
  1. Sarah Douglas *
  2. Felicity Sedgewick
  3. Monique Botha *

Abstract

Background: Many services designed to support victims/survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) do not have a specific focus on, or understanding of neurodivergence, which may impact autistic access to meaningful support. The aim of this project was to examine the support and recovery needs of autistic adults who have experienced IPV. Method: We recruited 21 autistic adults (mean age = 42) to take part in a semistructured interview about the experience of IPV. We asked questions about their support seeking and recommendations for future intervention. We analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. One author coded all data, engaging in reflexive discussion with the whole team. They then organized these into themes in collaboration with a second team member. These were circulated to the whole team for discussion and refinement. Results: We identified three themes in the data, which focused on support and recovery: (1) recovery is a journey (recovery is nonlinear and involves multiple disclosures over time), (2) building better systems (addressing systemic gaps in knowledge and practice and combating under-resourcing), and (3) how we stop this (recognizing potential individual risk factors and increasing relationship education). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that approaches to supporting autistic victims/survivors in recovery need a nuanced, multipronged approach. Intervention should focus on relationship education ensuring access to appropriate therapies and support for individuals and ameliorating systemic issues such as a lack of professional understanding and a lack of practical support for survivors.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 07:50.

Cited references
32
With a DOI
28
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
9 / 32 (28.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 32 (6.2%)
References with detected author names
30 / 32 (93.8%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
2
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
99
From DOI or external metadata
99
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
53 / 99 (53.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 46 / 99 (46.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 99 (14.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 53 (26.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 9 / 87 (10.3%).
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