Autistic youth have been shown to be at risk for negative peer experiences, but experiences of being ignored are rarely examined in this group. This study is an early-stage examination of the experience of being ignored in autistic youth. Objectives are to test psychometric properties of a measure of being ignored; describe rates of being ignored; identify who is most at risk for being ignored; and test the association of being ignored with other social experiences and psychological health. One hundred and forty-nine autistic high school students with full scale IQs of 70 or above (M = 99.86, SD = 16.5) and aged 15-23 years completed self-reported, online surveys regarding day-to-day experiences, well-being, and psychological health. Parents completed additional measures assessing ASD symptomology and other demographic and clinical characteristics. A confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha indicated good psychometric properties for the Ignore factor. While the average score on the Ignore scale was relatively low, ~40% reported often having at least one type of experience of being ignored. Being ignored was associated with having more SRS-2 Restricted Interests/Repetitive Behaviors and Social Communication and Interaction Problems. Peer victimization was associated with higher rates on the ignore scale and social inclusion scale was associated with lower rates of being ignored. Multiple regressions controlling for peer victimization and inclusion found being ignored to be associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. The findings suggest that being ignored may be an especially impactful experience for autistic youth.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 March 2026.
All research outputs
#20,421,483
of 32,425,606 outputs
Outputs from Autism Research
#1,454
of 2,049 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#78,410
of 266,519 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Autism Research
#23
of 43 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,425,606 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 36th percentile – i.e., 36% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,049 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.9. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 266,519 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 43 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
