Abused women more likely to have an autistic child

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I don't know if this has already been posted. I couldn't find it on this forum.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 212818.htm

Apparently, researchers have found that women who were abused as children are more likely to give birth to an autistic child than women who have not been abused. What are your thoughts? It seems a bit odd to me.

I wonder if they tested the mothers for autism.
A child with autism could well be more at risk of being abused than non-autistic kids.
So autistic women are more likely to have been abused as a child, and also more likely to give birth to an autistic child.
Not saying that is the case, or that is what explains these findings, but it is a possibility and it should be considered.

I think it's nonsense. Don't get me wrong, I think that any prevention of abuse is a good thing but I don't think there's any evidence for a link with autism. The article doesn't even explain why the authors think that there might be a link.

This is just a wild suggestion that is probably wrong, but if it turns out that there exists a link to low maternal Vitamin D levels as is being investigated, perhaps women who were abused as children are less likely to spend time in the sun and thus have poor levels of Vitamin D unless they take supplements. It would be interesting to see if and how this varies by latitude.

I think that a lot of women who were abused were on the autism/asperger's spectrum themselves. Their children just inheret their DNA.

That has horrible implications. Humans are less likely to LOVE their offspring for having spectrum behaviors. How hated IS this autism?

By today's standards, my Mom would have been considered an abused child. Though she had lived and died without ever being diagnosed, I think she was autistic, same as me and my daughter. I agree, autistic children are more likely to be abused, and then grow up to possibly be in abusive relationships, because autistics are perceived as easier to victimize.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I think there might be some connection, although not necessarily that being abused causes women to have autistic kids.

My parents were very abusive to me. Locked me in bathrooms, had me kneel on tile for hours and beat me with a belt if I cried or tried to sit because my knees hurt so much, threw me against a concrete wall once, my mother would take me to a kid's home and then tell me that she was visiting it because she planned to leave me there...all this before I was in 3rd grade. These were just some of the things these two crazies did. Neither my sister or brother had this done to them. Needless to say, I am the only one with an autistic child.

My uncle was also very abused when he was little by my grandparents. There is no doubt he was never diagnosed, but I am 100% sure that he is autistic. I do believe some of his kids, even a boy he did not raise or saw since he was about 3 now has an autistic son and he too believes he is as autistic as his son.

So I really there is a connection, although not necessarily that it is caused by abuse...but who knows.