Beliefs and attitudes toward ASD among African American and caucasian American parents

Background: Full participation and equality of opportunity are internationally accepted goals for persons with disabilities. However, persons with ASD face many obstacles in trying to gain access to available services and in obtaining assistance to meet their special needs. Some of these barriers are physical, but more often they are attitudinal. Still, some  are due to beliefs about the causes of disability which in return give parents help seeking direction.

Objectives: It was hypothesized that beliefs about ASD and causal attribution of ASD will independently predict help seeking behaviors for both groups

Methods: A survey method was used to determine the existing beliefs, attitudes and help seeking behaviors among parents of children with ASD. Participants were parents of children between the ages of 5-14 (40 African Americans and 40 Caucasian Americans).

Results: Supernatural beliefs were held by a significant number of parents. These beliefs are significant if held by parents, because they may interfere with intervention efforts. The most negative misconceptions were rejected by an average of 68% of persons, though a realistic 26% thought that persons with ASD could be a burden sometimes.

Conclusions: As predicted, beliefs and causal attribution of ASD independently predicted help seeking behaviors for both African Americans and Caucasian Americans. Specifically, individuals with less negative beliefs about ASD , attribute causes to psychosocial factors are more likely to report willingness to seek psychological help, while those with negative beliefs about disorders, attribute causes to supernatural factors are more likely to report willingness to seek culturally appropriate help.