I would like to know if there is any research published about the factor of family violence, especially towards mother, as a factor that can cause autism to the child. I mean if the child observes such kind of violence scenes in home, is it possible these scenes to encourage the presentation of ASD?
Psychogenic theories of autism have long been discredited. Autism is now widely understood as a neuro-developmental condition. Parental behaviour does not cause autism - some case reports have shown that profound institutional privation can result in quasi-autistic symptoms (Rutter, Andersen-Wood, Beckett et al 1999). From this it might be reasonable to think that violence in the home could cause reactions such as withdrawal, anxiety, disturbance - normal reactions to abnormal adult behaviours, but not autism.
Autism is a disorder with a strong genetic basis. In fact, autism is among the most heritable neurodevelopmental disorders, with some studies suggesting a heritability of 60-90% among monozygotic twins. Nevertheless, also multiple gene-environmental interactions might play a role. Violence is a possible environmental risk factor, but family violence as such, most probably, cannot cause autism in children. However, we know that children of mothers who suffered violence (physical or psychological) during pregnancy can present with modifications in their epigenome and alterations in the activity of the glucocorticoids receptors. It is not yet sure, but probably such epigenetic modifications can be found also in children who suffered themselves violence during the first periods of their life. Therefore, violence as such does not cause autism, but it could, at least in some cases, bring to surface more serious autistic traits. For more details see also: A. Meyer, T. Elbert, Translational Psychiatry, 2011
Dear Efi
The domestic violence, or intrafamily, deeper reaches humans
It happens mainly for three reasons: abuse of power of the stronger against the weaker;
the reproduction of violence, or parents who maltreated as children also form and
the poverty and misery in which the family finds itself
"Peace Begins at Home "
The literature is guided by huge lists of likely psychological harm to those who suffer family violence and that the child may become depressed and isolated
Autism is a condition characterized by lack of social development, communication difficulty and the occurrence of repetitive patterns of behavior.
Its causes are not well understood by the scientific community
There is no evidence in favour of this hypothesis, and a vast amount of evidence against it.
There are no reliable studies showing any significant differences in childhood experiences or family pathology regarding individuals with autism (about 40 years was wasted looking for these--if they existed, they would have been found).
Autism is not a result of psychological harm, it is an atypical form of neurological functioning.
People with autism can, of course, suffer psychological harm, and in the decades when their families were pathologised many did suffer such harm due to being taken from their families and institutionalised. Many still suffer it due to being misunderstood and badly treated, within and outside of families.
Short version of this answer: No. Absolutely not.
As answered above the cause for Autism or ASD is still unknown. Because Autism is a broad spectrum, the assumption is that it has more than one specific cause.
But it is not it is not in dispute that ASD is a neurobiological disorder.
I've reviewed hundreds of articles on intimate partner violence and have not seen even a whisper of a reference to autism. While traditional IPV advocates generally ascribe social learning theory to explain why there are high overlaps of childhood exposure to IPV and adult exposure, it is more likely due to emotional dysregulation as a consequence of exposure to childhood trauma. Here are some articles that explore the impact of childhood abuse that might be helpful (and support ruling out any relationship between domestic violence's and autism by comparing the the areas of the brain impacted by the two types of issues).
Pine, D. (2003). Developmental psychobiology and response to threats: Relevance to trauma in children and adolescents. Biological Psychiatry, 53, 796 – 808
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., . . . Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258.
Two theoretical foundations I have found helpful:
Ganzel, B. L., Morris, P. A., & Wethington, E. (2010). Allostasis and the human brain: Integrating models of stress from the social and life sciences. Psychological Review, 117:1, 134-174.
Porges, S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74:2, 116-143.
Well, then, reviewing the responses so far, with most of which I agree (those stressing the neuro developmental aspect), with Kathy's contribution to finish any possibly remaining doubts, we arrive at an unusual consensus. A rare occasion, which calls for celebration.
In the same vein, I hold on to the scourging review of Bruno Bettelheims "The empty fortress" by Charles Rycroft in The New York Review of Books (VOLUME 8, NUMBER 8 · MAY 4, 1967)
As we learn more about autism, it becomes more difficult to think of autism as a single entity. It is better understood as a collection of sensory and behavioral symptoms that may have different causes. For example, we know that some genetic factors can cause autistic features, but these do not cause all cases. There is no indication that family violence is an important cause of most cases of autism, and tehre are many cases where siblings and even twins are raised in the same family and one is autistic and the other is not so it is illogical to think that the family function or dysfunction causes it. However, there is every reason to believe that family violence and family dysfunction can and often does worsen the effects of autism. While major behavior problems such as aggressiveness and self-injury can occur in autistic individuals raised in the best of family environments, they occur with greater frequency and often greater severity in dysfunctional families. All children are vulnerable to the effects of family conflict, but some are more resilient than others, and most children with autism are particularly vulnerable to chaotic environments. Ironically, perhaps, there is some evidence that mothers who were abused as children are more likely to have autistic children but there is a lot of work yet to be done to confirm this finding and if confirmed to determine why this relationship exists. See: Roberts, A. L., Lyall, K., Rich-Edwards, J. W., Ascherio, A., & Weisskopf, M. G. (2013). Association of maternal exposure to childhood abuse with elevated risk for autism in offspring. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(5), 508-515.
Certainly not "child observing violence" as autism begins to manifest far too early in development, however as we investigate further the uterine environment as interacting with the genetics, plausible scenarios could be imagined of how IPV during pregnancy could have neurological consequences for the child, but these would be unlikely to trigger autism specifically without the "right" combination of genetics and perhaps timing. And certainly witnessing marital conflict could exacerbate behaviours in a child with autism (as it does in children without autism).
I agree with Oriane, we do know that extremely high stress levels during pregnancy affect the fetus in at least two ways that have developmental consequences. First, they reduce uterine blood flow making less oxygen available, so the effects have been likened to the effects of smoking during pregnancy. Second, stress chemicals such as cortisone cross the placenta and as a result the stress is transmitted from the mother to the fetus. There is some evidence that this means that children can be born with Post-traumatic stress disorder or at least the physiology of PTSD. For example, that they will have reduced volume of the hippocampus and that they will continue to be hyper-responders to stressors throughout their lives. So we know that even in the absence of physical damage to the mother, extreme stress during pregnancy is harmful to the offspring. These mechanisms, however, are not known to specifically induce autism or be a major contributor to autism. It remains possible that in the presence of genetic factors, stress triggers some process that could manifest autism but "possible" here only means that such an event cannot be categorically ruled out is all cases... it doesn't mean that their is reason to believe this is a frequent scenario. Also, Intimate Partner Violence is just one thing that can cause extreme stress, many other injuries, illnesses, events might also cause similar stressful influences on the fetus. For example, accidental injuries causing considerable physical damage or the death of loving spouse might have similar effects on the uterine environment.
Hi. I've been thinking about this some more. It is possible that IPV might impact the child's autistic severity. There is research that short term stressers result in short-term increased IPV. My sister has an autistic son, and while they have financial resources, I imagine for people who don't it is very painful to know that if you have more money you could hire specialists and possibly increase the child's long-term outcomes. There is an abundance of research supporting two types of IPV: severe and mild-moderate. (FYI: also an abundance that IPV is not caused by "power and control" but that is another discussion, just bringing it up so that if you do follow IPV you are not using a popular yet poorly supported theoretical position). At a minimum 70% of IPV falls into the mild-moderate category which is likely engaged in when couple disagreements escalate and result in pushing, shoving, slapping. Another component is that a positive response to depression treatment for women decreased her exposure to IPV supporting the premiss that arguments escalate. I felt you needed this background to support my thoughts.
While IPV doesn't "cause" autism, it is possible that IPV results in decreased autism treatment results, or even the stress of being in that situation results in less functionality. This ties back to the earlier work I referred you to Pines, Porges, & Ganzel. It is also possible that a parents depression, alcohol usage (even if no IPV) has a deleterious impact on a child's autism state. So, perhaps you could do parent assessment and child's autism severity and compare the frequency rates of severity in this population with national population to see if they are higher. It would make sense that the child's autistic symptoms would be worse in families with IPV given that 40-60% of children who grow up in IPV families use IPV as adults. Historically, this as been attributed to social learning but the research in neuropsychology suggests that it is related to emotional dysregulation due to trauma response. It also might be interesting to explore using Trauma Incident Reduction treatment (my personal favorite for multiple reasons) with children who have been exposed to IPV to see if their autism symptomology changes over time. Keep in mind, PTSD continues to see improvements 6 months and a year after an effective treatment, so an assessment at the end of treatment will likely not capture all of the gains.
Good luck!
Roberts, A., McLaughlin, K., Conron, K., & Koenen, K. (2011). Adulthood stressors, history of childhood adversity, and risk of perpetration of intimate partner violence. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 40:2, 128-138. 10.1016/j.amepre. 2010.10.016
Gondolf, E. (2007). Theoretical and research support for the Duluth Model: A reply to Dutton and Corvo. Aggression and Violent Behavior 12, 644–657. 10.1016/ j.avb.2007.03.001
Dowd, L. S., Leisring, P. A., & Rosenbaum, A. (2005). Partner aggressive women: Characteristics and treatment attrition. Violence and Victims, 20(2), 219-233. 10.1891/ vivi.2005.20.2.219
Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., & Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive–behavioral therapy for PTSD and depression symptoms reduces risk for future intimate partner violence among interpersonal trauma survivors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(2), 193-202. 10.1037/a0022512
Johnson, M. & Leone, J. (2005). The differential effects of intimate terrorism and situational couple violence: Findings from the national violence against women survey. Journal Of Family Issues, 26(3), 322-349.
As a student of ABA and autism, I can only speak from my pool of current knowledge and available resources regarding what may "cause" ASD. To this day, I believe the exact etiology (i.e. "cause" or "origin") has not yet been discovered - at least nothing receiving overwhelming support from the scientific community at large to accept it as a scientific truth.
You inquire here if these things may "encourage the presentation of ASD". If by presentation of ASD, you are referring to characteristics or symptoms tied to the diagnosis, I suggest you familiarize yourself with what those characteristics are (e.g. the most recent diagnostic manual for mental disorders in America - the DSM 5 to be released in May, or internationally - the ICD-10, with ICD-11 set to be released next year) the but KEEP IN MIND that a person exhibiting one, a few, or even a majority of these symptoms DOES NOT necessarily mean said person has ASD.
I imagine that perhaps symptoms somewhat similar to a few characteristics of ASD, such as lack of eye contact, deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, or even ritualized behavior like rocking back and forth (I'm only guessing here...) may emerge in a child who was witness to, or victim of violence - especially in the home with family, where one is supposed to feel safe. However, part of the diagnostic criteria posits that symptoms must have been present in early childhood, though may not be (as) evident until the demands of his/her societal environment exceed the developmental limitations of the individual (O'Connor & Finn, 2013).
Reference:
O’Connor, J. & Finn, L. (2013, April). DSM-5: What do the upcoming changes to ASD mean? 2013 Best Practices in Autism Intervention Conference. Lecture conducted from The Sage Colleges, Troy, NY.
I agree with many of the authors of answers above
"Autism is not a result of psychological harm, it is an atypical form of neurological functioning."
"I agree with Oriane, we do know that extremely high stress levels during pregnancy affect the fetus in at least two ways that have developmental consequences. First, they reduce uterine blood flow making less oxygen available, so the effects have been likened to the effects of smoking during pregnancy. Second, stress chemicals such as cortisone cross the placenta and as a result the stress is transmitted from the mother to the fetus. There is some evidence that this means that children can be born with Post-traumatic stress disorder or at least the physiology of PTSD. For example, that they will have reduced volume of the hippocampus and that they will continue to be hyper-responders to stressors throughout their lives. "
"As we learn more about autism, it becomes more difficult to think of autism as a single entity. It is better understood as a collection of sensory and behavioral symptoms that may have different causes."
"While IPV doesn't "cause" autism, it is possible that IPV results in decreased autism treatment results, or even the stress of being in that situation results in less functionality"
I have observed this in families with both abusive backgrounds and nurturing backgrounds where education and financial factors played a significant role. The parents were siblings and the outcomes with the children in those circumstances were staggering. Chaotic, abusive behavior can affect the outcome of children born with autism. This condition's (in this specific case Asperger's) outcome can be very positive with the best of scenario prevailing in the way these children perceive the world. Unfortunately, those with the most financial resources and education in the area are the people who generally succeed. In the case of added stress children suffer the consequences of uniformed unconscious parenting, reducing their chances of having the best possible outcome.
I don't believe that witnessing family violence causes ASD. However, I do believe that witnessing angry behavior can aggravate an already existing case of ASD. The relevant construct here is negatively expressed emotion. Just as negatively expressed emotion can exacerbate schizophrenia, in similar fashion it might play a role in meltdowns or tantrums among children who have ASD. If you wish to read more about how negatively expressed emotion influences behavior in children with ASD, I'd suggest taking a look at a book chapter written by my colleague Dr. Sandra Burkhardt, who is an ABPP licensed clinical psychologist. I believe that that her chapter is titled "Counseling issues for parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders," published in 2001 in the book series called "Advances in Special Education."
Julie makes a good point. There is reason to believe that witnessing family violence or severe discord, can produce traumatic stress in children. Children with autism seem to be particularly vulnerable to anxiety. Post-Traumatic Stress can certainly produce severe emotional problems in children with autism or other developmental disabilities and their is a small but emerging body of literature on treating it in this population. Nancy J. Razza, Daniel J. Tomasulo, Dick Sobsey, (2011) "Group psychotherapy for trauma-related disorders in people with intellectual disabilities", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 5 Iss: 5, pp.40 - 45
I read an article a year ago that analyzed PTSD in returning combat veterans and PTSD in children. Both the veterans and the children suffered blunt force trauma to the tops of their heads, causing TBIs from brain lesions. The findings were that the hypervigilance found in the two were similar, yet the cortisol levels were opposite. The veterans' cortisol levels normalized, while the high levels in children remained consistently high. I hope this adds another dimension to your research. Also, as a parent of a child currently being evaluated for Asperger's and autism...my child does have all the traits in the previous posted list for Asperger's, has an incredible vocabulary, awesome memory on interested subjects, and recently finds great delight in humor...especially puns. His repetitive behaviors are calming to him, he is still somewhat socially engaged with peers, makes eye contact, yet has difficulty with executive functioning. I am interested if you have seen similar cases and might lend suggestions on productive ways to foster peer relationships. Thank you for posting your question!
There's a more recent (2015) study by Roberts at al which seems methodologically sound and convincing (http://aut.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/02/03/1362361314566049.abstract?rss=1). I agree with all the above who have stressed the role of stress during pregnancy (and even in the year before according to Roberts et al.) The idea that witnessing family violence is conductive to autism is something different completely and touches on the taboo of the "refrigerator mother".
About the effects perinatal stress generally Roberts et al (2015) say the evidence is inconclusive, but I'm not so sure. I quote from a recent entry in a LInkedIn-discussion (in 'Autism Researchers LInk') by Jackie McMillan:
E.g. Catalano & Hartig, 2001:
“Persistent elevation of maternal serum cortisol has very significant negative effects on the outcome of the pregnancy and health of the newborn.”
In addition, babies who are circumcised have an 80% or higher likelihood of autism (Circumcision: http://questioning-answers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/ritual-circumcision-and-risk-of-autism.html)"
I suppose this discussion is far from concluded.
Please take a look at this link.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4605895/
No evidence to my knowledge and it doesn't match the increasing knowledge about genetic causes.
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