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Public Stigma of Autism Spectrum Disorder at School: Implicit Attitudes Matter

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Abstract

This study examines the public stigma of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by their school-aged peers, focusing on both explicit and implicit attitudes. The twofold aims were to provide a broader picture of public stigma and to explore age-related changes in attitudes. Students completed an explicit measure of the public stigma and an implicit measure of attitudes after watching a video displaying children with ASD vs. typically developing (TD) children. Both measures showed more negative perceptions towards children with ASD compared to TD children. However, while explicit attitudes improved with age, implicit attitudes remained constantly negative. This finding suggests that both explicit and implicit attitudes should be considered when promoting an inclusive climate at school.

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Notes

  1. We provide results on simple effects of movement for each category in the Appendix. We did not describe them in the core text because it is very common to observe a main effect of movement in approach-avoidance tasks (i.e., a faster approach than avoidance reactions; e.g., Krieglmeyer & Deutsch, 2013; Rinck & Becker, 2007) rendering the interpretation of these simple effects irrelevant. Although the main effect of movement is not significant in our study, we still recommend caution when interpreting the results.

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Acknowledgments

The Authors would like to thank associative partners: Virginie Gratiot, president of the association "D'une rive à l'autre" and, Jocelyne Garcia, president of the association "Les mots de Jossy". The authors are very grateful to Uhaina Dalmau, Arthur Delisle and Jeanne Record for their valuable help in the data collection. They also thank all the teachers for their warm welcome in their classrooms in Bordeaux.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Processus de Santé, EA 4057, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 71 Avenue E. Vaillant, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    Benoite Aubé & Cyrielle Derguy

  2. Laboratoire de Psychologie, EA 4139, Univ. Bordeaux, 3ter place de la Victoire, 33000, Bordeaux, France

    Alice Follenfant

  3. Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale: Contextes et Régulation, EA 4471, Université de Paris, 92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    Sébastien Goudeau

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  1. Benoite Aubé
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  2. Alice Follenfant
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  3. Sébastien Goudeau
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  4. Cyrielle Derguy
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Contributions

BA, AF, CD, and SG conceived and designed the study. BA prepared the tools for implicit measure and the video. BA, AF and CD developed the scale for explicit measure. AF organized the data collection in school and collected the data. BA performed the statistical analyses. BA, AF and CD wrote the article and SG revised it critically.

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Correspondence to Benoite Aubé or Cyrielle Derguy.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. In addition, all procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the respective institutional and national research committees, as well as with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. Moreover, an institutional ethics committee approved the research.

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Aubé, B., Follenfant, A., Goudeau, S. et al. Public Stigma of Autism Spectrum Disorder at School: Implicit Attitudes Matter. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1584–1597 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04635-9

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