The MANIFESTATION of CORE Features of ASD in African-American and Latino CHILDREN

Background: Very little has been written on the manifestation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in minority populations. Previous studies of autism in African Americans have focused on differences in clinical practices and service utilization (Mandell and Novak, 2005). For instance, Mandell et al. (2002) reported that relative to Caucasian children, African American children are more likely to be diagnosed significantly later. There also has been some research to suggest the prevalence rates ASDs are similar in African-American and Caucasian populations. While the literature has been sparse on ASDs in African-Americans, it has been relatively silent on Latinos.  This study examines the symptomatology of Caucasian, African-American and Latino children diagnosed with an ASD as reported on the ADI-R.                                                             

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine if the core features of ASD are expressed differently in three racial/ethnic groups.

Methods: The sample consisted of 275 participants (African-Americans=40, Latino=22, white = 213). The participants were enrolled in a larger genetic study of ASDs. Parents completed the ADI-R to confirm the diagnosis of ASD. 

Results: A MANOVA was performed to determine if the was a significant differences between African-American and Latino children’s ADI-R scores. The results indicated there were no main effects of race on any of the ADI-R Social (F_(1,62)=1.348, p=0.250), Communication(F_(1,62)=2.149, p=0.148), and RSB (F_(1,62)=1.265, p=0.265) domains. Thus the African-American and Latino groups were collapsed into a single group (non-white).  Another MANOVA was performed to determine if the was a significant differences between the non-white group and the Caucasian group. The results indicated there were no main effects of race on the ADI-R Communication and RSB domains.  However, there was a significant man effect for race on the Social domain score, F_(1,274)=4.621, p=0.032.  To further clarify this finding, a one way ANOVA was performed on the Social domain subscale scores B1 (use of nonverbals for social regulation), B2 (peer relationships), B3 (shared enjoyment), and B4 (socio-emotional reciprocity). The ANOVA indicate that there are significant differences between the races on the B2 scores (F_(1,274)=5.548, p=0.019) and the B3 scores (F_(1,274)= 4.670, p=0.032).  African-American and Latino parents reported their children had greater difficulty with developing peer relationships and shared enjoyment than their Caucasian counterparts.
Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest two of the core features of ASD (communication and repetitive behaviors) are manifested similarly in ethnic minority groups and Caucasians. African-American and Latino parents reported greater social deficits in their children than Caucasian parents. This finding raises an interesting question, do African-Americans and Latinos with ASD have greater social deficits than Caucasians or is there something about the culture of these two groups that places a greater importance of social interaction thus the social deficits found in ASD are rated as a greater deficit? More research in this area is needed to further examine this finding.