AUTHOR=Yoon Wn-ho , Seo JaeKyung , Je Cheolung 

TITLE=Korean autistic persons facing systemic stigmatization from middle education schools: daily survival on the edge as a puppet

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1260318

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1260318

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Introduction: Korean Autistics who have endured an integrated secondary education system have been exposed to school bullying, causing trauma and stigma to them. It also blocks them from entering a tertiary education system and decent work, resulting in a lower quality of life. However, research on how it affects autistics has not yet been conducted in Korea. 
Methods: 14 adult autistic persons in the Republic of Korea participated in the semi-structured focused group interviews. Their conversations were analysed through qualitative coding.
Results: The interview results show the rare voice of Korean Autistic people. While interviewees experienced physical, verbal, and sexual violence against them during the secondary education period, they could not get substantial assistance from schools and society. Interviewees agreed that bullying is inherent in the secondary education system of Korea, even in Korean culture. They experienced the cause of bullying being attributed to them as victims rather than perpetrators and impunity being given to the bullying assailants. Early analyses of this paper confirm that such experiences are combined with the sociocultural climate of elitism, meritocracy, and authoritarianism in the Republic of Korea. 
Conclusion: The study confirmed that the Autistic person’s bullying experience does not come from the social inability of autistic people, but the ‘profound’ competition and discriminative atmosphere of society. The result urges further studies on the bullying experience of East Asian Autistics, and the construction of Korean Intervention strategies to prevent school violence against Koreans with disabilities, especially autistic pupils.