Table 3.

The characteristics and main results of highly cited papers on research related to trauma and ASD.

Authors (Year)	Journal	Title	Total Citations	TC per Year	Normalized TC	Principal Result
Kerns, C.M., Newschaffer, C.J., & Berkowitz, S.J. (2015) [17]	Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders	Traumatic Childhood Events and Autism Spectrum Disorder	119	13.22	1.92	Traumatic childhood events were associated with a wide range of negative physical, psychological, and adaptive outcomes over the life course and were one of the few identifiable causes of psychiatric illness.
Mehtar, M., & Mukaddes, N.M. (2011) [28]	Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders	Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in individuals with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders	60	4.62	1.00	Witnessing or being a victim of accidents/disasters/violence was the most common type of trauma. Interestingly, the rate of sexual and/or physical abuse was less than in the general population. Trauma history and PTSD rates were higher in girls than boys. Deterioration in social and communicative abilities, increase in stereotypes, aggression, distractibility, sleep disorders, agitation, hyperactivity, self-injury, and loss of self-care skills were the most common symptoms detected following trauma.
Roberts, A.L., Koenen, K.C., Lyall, K., Robinson, E.B., & Weisskopf, M.G. (2015) [29]	Child Abuse & Neglect	Association of autistic traits in adulthood with childhood abuse, interpersonal victimization, and post-traumatic stress	55	6.11	0.89	Compared to the general population, a sample of women with autistic traits were more likely to have been sexually abused (40.1% versus 26.7%), physically/emotionally abused (23.9% versus 14.3%), mugged (17.1% versus 10.1%), pressured into sexual contact (25.4% versus 15.6%) and have high PTSD symptoms (10.7% versus 4.5%). Levels of autistic traits are associated with abuse, trauma, and PTSD symptoms.
Taylor, J.L., & Gotham, K.O. (2016) [13]	Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders	Cumulative life events, traumatic experiences, and psychiatric symptomatology in transition-aged youth with autism spectrum disorder	49	6.13	3.75	Over 50% of youth had experienced at least one trauma. Nearly one-half had clinical-level mood or anxiety symptomatology. There was a statistically significant relation between the absence/presence of trauma and mood symptomatology; nearly 90% of the youth with clinical-level mood symptoms had at least one trauma, compared to 40% of those with no mood symptomatology.
Hoover, D.W., & Kaufman, J. (2017) [30]	Current Opinion	Adverse childhood experiences in children with autism spectrum disorder	47	7.83	2.99	Children with ASD with an elevated number of ACES also experience a delay in ASD diagnosis and treatment initiation. There is no evidence of an increased risk of child maltreatment within the ASD population.
Rumball, F., Happé, F., & Grey, N. (2020) [7]	Autism Research	Experience of Trauma and PTSD Symptoms in Autistic Adults: Risk of PTSD Development Following DSM-5 and Non-DSM-5 Traumatic Life Events	40	10.00	3.29	Thirty-three people reported experiencing a “DSM-5” traumatic event (i.e., an event that met DSM-5 PTSD Criterion A), and 35 reported a “non-DSM5” traumatic event. Trauma-exposed adults with ASD were found to be at increased risk of developing PTSD, compared with previous statistics from the general population, with PTSD symptom scores crossing thresholds suggesting a probable PTSD diagnosis for more than 40% of people with ASD who follow the DSM-5 or not DSM-5 trauma.
Hoover, D.W. (2015) [31]	Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders	The Effects of Psychological Trauma on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Research Review	38	4.22	0.61	Bullying has received much attention, while there is a paucity of research on other types of trauma. Anxiety, social isolation, and developmental regression are associated with trauma.
Kupferstein, H. (2018) [32]	Advances in Autism	Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis	34	5.67	2.16	This study noted PTSS in nearly half of ABA-exposed participants, while non-exposed controls had a 72 percent chance of being asymptomatic. ABA satisfaction ratings for caregivers averaged neutral or mild satisfaction. In contrast, adult satisfaction with ABA was lower on average and also tended to take on either extremely low or extremely high ratings.
Zhang, W., Yan, T.T., Barriball, K.L., While, A.E., & Liu, X.H. (2013) [33]	Autism	Post-traumatic growth in mothers of children with autism: A phenomenological study	34	3.78	0.55	A new philosophy of life, appreciation of life, relating to others, personal strength, and spiritual change were five domains of post-traumatic growth in mothers of children with autism. Perceived social support, peer example, effective coping style and self-efficacy enhancement were facilitating factors of post-traumatic growth.
Kildahl, A.N., Bakken, T.L., Iversen, T.E., & Helverschou, S.B. (2019) [21]	Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities	Identification of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability	29	5.80	2.03	The assessment methodology in the studies varied, as did the symptom reporting format. The assessment methodology in the studies varied, as did the symptom reporting format. The DSM-5 criteria provide a useful framework for integrating study results, indicating that PTSD can be identified in people with ASD and ID. However, symptoms involving disturbances in arousal and negative disturbances in thought and behavior appear to be more readily identifiable than re-experiencing and avoidance symptoms.