Blog Post #2 - Autism

In this blog post, I will be reviewing an article by Fischbach et. al, “Is there concordance in attitudes and beliefs between parents and scientists about autism spectrum disorder?”  In this article, the author went over the fact that there was never any investigation that had been reported involving the attitudes and beliefs between parents and scientists about autism spectrum disorder.  To begin their research, they did a survey involving 502 parents and 60 scientists. Attached, you will see Table 2, “Survey questions on causes and research priorities asked to both parents (502) and scientists (60).

 As can be seen, 95% of scientists, and 55% of parents believe that the most likely cause of autism is genetics. 

As stated by the authors, “This empirical investigation is novel, as no comparable studies of concordance between parents and scientists could be found” (Fischbach et al, 2016, p. 354).  Most literature that has been reviewed and consists of autism, tends to focus on things such as, “Vaccine-Related Beliefs and Practices of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders” (Bazzano et al, 2012). Constructivist philosophical paradigms seemed to be used by the authors.  The article compares the beliefs of the parents vs the scientists, and shows that many of the parents construct their understanding and knowledge through their experience.  Since the literature is less than a year old, it is very current and quite significant in the topic area of autism. Inductive research is done in this article rather than being of theoretical framework. They attempted to create a theory of their own based upon the research being collected. 

The type of study was exploratory and qualitative.

“Data were collected, cleaned, and coded by CSR and entered into SPSS (SPSS Statistics Grad Pack 22.0) for analysis. Differences between parents’ and scientists’ responses were assessed via chi-square tests. The chi-square test of independence was used as we had nominal level variables.” (Fischbach et al, 2016, p. 354).

Genetic testing was done and questions on stigma were asked. Stigma was defined in this article as “when individuals are “made to feel inferior, shamed, isolated, or their self-image is damaged”’ (Fischbach et al, 2016, p. 357).  Levels of which can be seen in Table 3.  The independent variables in this article were simply the fact of whether or not the child has autism, as it will affect the responses.  The dependent variables include the attitudes and beliefs of both parents and scientists, as if studies done could show proof in changes, the attitudes and beliefs could quickly change.  These variables are measured through surveys conducted and are valid and reliable.

The authors covered the attitudes and beliefs of both parents and scientists quite well.  I feel that if the communication barriers were to be knocked down, those attitudes and beliefs may possibly correspond a lot more.  The issues with this article however are the facts that most of the 502 parents involved are “highly educated, predominantly White, and their children with ASD had higher average intelligence quotients (IQ) than the general population of children with ASD” (Fischbach et al, 2016, p. 361).  Therefore, I would highly recommend that the author take that into consideration for future studies.  I believe that a higher level of parents should be asked to participate, the races involved should be much more spread out instead of mostly White, and more families with a child that has ASD should be involved.  As far as scientists go, I believe that more doctors and healthcare providers should be involved as well.  One of the main issues though, again, is communication.  Just like it is stated in the article, “Better cooperation and communication between parents and scientists should improve practice,

mutual understanding, and ultimately the health and well-being of children with ASD and their families” (Fischbach et al, 2016, p. 361).

By: Whitney Skierski and Brittany Culley

REFERENCES:

Bazzano, A., Zeldin, A., Schuster, E., Barrett, C., & Lehrer, D. (2012). Vaccine-related beliefs and practices of parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 117(3), 233-242.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.). Data and statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

Fischbach, R. L., Harris, M. J., Ballan, M. S., Fischbach, G. D., & Link, B. G. (2016). Is there concordance in attitudes and beliefs between parents and scientists about autism spectrum disorder? Autism, 20(3), 353-363.