Ma Yu, Lee Liz Yuanxi, Zhang Xuemin
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Center for Psychological Health, Ningxia Vocational Technical College of Industry and Commerce, Ningxia, China.
Autism Dev Lang Impair. 2023 Apr 10;8:23969415231168567. doi: 10.1177/23969415231168567. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.
Autistic individuals show differences in social and behavioral performances. Autism-related stigma affects autistic children as well as their caregivers (e.g., parents). Research has shown that stigmatizing reactions from others toward caregivers of autistic children are common and that these caregivers suffer from affiliate stigma.
To examine the level of affiliate stigma among parents of autistic children and its predictive factors in mainland China.
This was a cross-sectional study involving parents of autistic children from mainland China. The sample consisted of 183 parents (mean age = 36.5 years). The measures assessed included demographic characteristics, and parents completed two questionnaires. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) was used to evaluate the characteristics of children by their parent's subjective assessments, and the Affiliate Stigma Scale (ASS) was used to investigate the affiliate stigma level of parents.
The affiliate stigma levels of parents of autistic children were high, and the mean score of the affect subscale was higher than those of the other subscales. The mean ASS score differed significantly between employed and unemployed parents, those aged under 40 and over 40, and high- and low-income parents. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that parents' age, monthly household income, and mean SRS score were significant predictors of the mean ASS score. The results indicated that parents of autistic children and their children need more social support and inclusion in mainland China.
The present study confirms the importance of studying primary caregivers (i.e., parents) in the context of traditional mainland Chinese culture. Although preliminarily, findings showed that the affiliate stigma levels of parents are high in mainland China, probably due to the influence of traditional cultural values. Moreover, considering the importance of autistic child characteristics, our results suggest that we should increase public knowledge of autism, enrich the general understanding of autism, and reduce the autism-related stigma of parents in mainland Chinese societies.
自闭症患者在社交和行为表现上存在差异。与自闭症相关的污名化影响着自闭症儿童及其照顾者（如父母）。研究表明，他人对自闭症儿童照顾者的污名化反应很常见，这些照顾者会遭受关联污名。
考察中国大陆自闭症儿童家长的关联污名水平及其预测因素。
这是一项横断面研究，涉及中国大陆自闭症儿童的家长。样本包括183名家长（平均年龄 = 36.5岁）。评估的指标包括人口统计学特征，家长们完成了两份问卷。社会反应量表（SRS）用于通过家长的主观评估来评估儿童的特征，关联污名量表（ASS）用于调查家长的关联污名水平。
自闭症儿童家长的关联污名水平较高，情感子量表的平均得分高于其他子量表。在职和失业家长、40岁以下和40岁以上家长以及高收入和低收入家长的ASS平均得分存在显著差异。分层回归分析表明，家长的年龄、家庭月收入和SRS平均得分是ASS平均得分的显著预测因素。结果表明，中国大陆自闭症儿童家长及其子女需要更多的社会支持和包容。
本研究证实了在中国大陆传统文化背景下研究主要照顾者（即父母）的重要性。尽管初步结果显示，中国大陆家长的关联污名水平较高，这可能是由于传统文化价值观的影响。此外，考虑到自闭症儿童特征的重要性，我们的结果表明，我们应该增加公众对自闭症的了解，丰富对自闭症的总体认识，并减少中国大陆社会中家长与自闭症相关的污名。
