Help seeking behaviors and differential utilization of services by parents of children with ASD

Background: While autism has been heavily studied, little is known on the factors influencing help seeking behaviors and thus differential utilization of services by different cultural groups. What we know is that African Americans tend not to seek help but gap remains as to why this is.
Objectives: The research question addressed in this study is whether there are factors that influence help seeking behaviors and thus the differential utilization of services. Further, do these factors differ by culture?
Methods: Help seeking behaviors of  80 parents of individuals with ASD (40 Caucasian Americans 40 African Americans) parents of children with autism between the ages of 5-14 were studied. Help seeking behaviors and service utilization questionnaires were used. Data was analyzed using SPSS.

Results: There were significant differences on help seeking behaviors among the two groups. The direction of the difference indicated that African American parents sought help less despite the fact that their children seemed to be more severe. However, Caucasian American parents from low social economic backgrounds  showed similar trend. In fact, 90% of African American children participating in the study were non-verbal. It also took these two African Americans longer to receive an official diagnosis which further delayed services. Conclusions: Although this study is far from conclusive, its findings suggest the existence of both systemic, cultural and individual factors that influence help seeking behaviors of parents of children with ASD. While participants described discussed here represent only an example of African American and Caucasian groups, the impact cannot be ignored especially given the fact that for ASD, early diagnosis means early intervention and thus improved developmental outcome.