Paul Sterzing PhD

Paul R. Sterzing, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the School of Social Welfare and a graduate of the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Sterzing is currently the Co-director of the Center for Prevention Research in Social Welfare and a faculty affiliate with the Gender and Women's Studies Department. Dr. Sterzing’s research identifies modifiable risk and protective factors associated with bullying involvement roles for autistic youth, adolescent girls in the child welfare system, and sexual and gender minority adolescents. Dr. Sterzing provided the first nationally representative estimates of bullying involvement roles for autistic youth: bully-only (5.8%), victim-only (37.4%), bully-victim (8.9%), and non-involved (47.9%). One of the most important findings from this study indicated that autistic youth who spent more than 75% of their time in a general education classroom had significantly higher adjusted odds of being victim-only compared to their non-bullying-involved counterparts. These findings suggest future bullying interventions need to increase the social integration of autistic youth into protective peer groups, while also increasing the empathy and social skills of neurotypical students toward their autistic peers. This study was published by the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine and received considerable national media attention in the New York Times, Washington Post, US News and World Report, Time, and CNN.