Abstract
In the DSM-5, ‘Asperger’s Disorder’ was incorporated into ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD). One key concern in this change has been that the ASD label will increase negative attitudes relative to the Asperger’s label. To test this, we asked 465 American adults to read a vignette describing a child with autistic symptoms that included an ASD label, an Asperger’s label, or no label, and rate their stigma and treatment attitudes (help-seeking and perceived effectiveness). Contrary to predictions, label did not impact stigma. Label did impact treatment attitudes, with greater help-seeking and perceived treatment effectiveness for both Asperger’s and ASD labels. In sum, concern that the ASD label will increase negative perceptions, at least amongst the general public, is not supported.
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For half of participants, the name of the child was changed to “Michelle,” along with the gender pronouns (e.g., ‘he’ to ‘she).
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We would like to acknowledge our participants for taking their time to complete this study.
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Appendix: Vignette Used to Depict a Child with ASD Symptoms
Appendix: Vignette Used to Depict a Child with ASD Symptoms
Michael is a 9-year old boy. Michael is a good student, getting mostly B’s and some A’s in reading, math, and science. He has a weakness in sports, as he has poor coordination and trouble understanding what others expect him to do. Michael doesn’t have any friends at school, and prefers to be on his own than playing with other children. He often plays his “own games,” making up his own rules, without considering or responding to what other children want. He often spends time on his own, and much of this time he spends researching his favorite subject, dinosaurs. Michael will spend hours reading everything he can find about dinosaurs, and he has very detailed knowledge about them. Although he tries to avoid talking with others, if he does, he often talks about dinosaurs. His conversations with others tend to be one-sided and he speaks quickly and without inflection or making eye contact. Michael does best when his day is predictable, and becomes very distressed if his day does not follow the same schedule. Changing activities also causes Michael to feel anxious; for example, at school he has difficulty with changing activities or moving between classrooms.Footnote 1
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Ohan, J.L., Ellefson, S.E. & Corrigan, P.W. Brief Report: The Impact of Changing from DSM-IV ‘Asperger’s’ to DSM-5 ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’ Diagnostic Labels on Stigma and Treatment Attitudes. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 3384–3389 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2485-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2485-7