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Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population

The identification and diagnosis of children with autism currently rely on behavioral presentation and developmental history. Cultural norms and other socio-demographic factors can influence what is expected or non-expected behaviors in a developing child. Perceptions, beliefs, and causal attributio...

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Autores principales: Buffle, Paulina, Gentaz, Edouard, Vivanti, Giacomo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9260421/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35814115
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915817
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author Buffle, Paulina
Gentaz, Edouard
Vivanti, Giacomo
author_facet Buffle, Paulina
Gentaz, Edouard
Vivanti, Giacomo
author_sort Buffle, Paulina
collection PubMed
description The identification and diagnosis of children with autism currently rely on behavioral presentation and developmental history. Cultural norms and other socio-demographic factors can influence what is expected or non-expected behaviors in a developing child. Perceptions, beliefs, and causal attribution of early signs can influence families’ help-search behaviors. Lack of recognition of autism’s first manifestations can critically delay the age of diagnosis, the provision of informed guidance to families, and the implementation of adapted interventions during the critical period of early development. Furthermore, a lack of understanding of early signs as the manifestations of a developmental condition may increase stigma and non-conventional explanations. Still, cultural and socio-demographic factors are largely understudied, particularly in low-and middle-income settings. Based on the hypothesis that non-specialists such as family members and friends are one of the first sources of referral in Latin American contexts, we aimed to study the general population’s perceptions and the explanatory causes of autism’s early signs. One-hundred-and-eighty-three Ecuadorian adults responded to a questionnaire developed for this study, describing sixteen ASD-related behaviors. Results indicated that, with the exemption of language impairment and self-injurious behaviors, a substantial proportion of participants did not endorse many behaviors as “concerning and requiring professional attention.” Also, language impairment was the only behavior identified as related to a developmental disorder. Additionally, most participants attributed the majority of behaviors listed in the questionnaire to causes unrelated to ASD, such as child personality. We discuss the impact of those findings in clinical practice and on awareness programs.
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spelling pubmed-92604212022-07-08 Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population Buffle, Paulina Gentaz, Edouard Vivanti, Giacomo Front Psychol Psychology The identification and diagnosis of children with autism currently rely on behavioral presentation and developmental history. Cultural norms and other socio-demographic factors can influence what is expected or non-expected behaviors in a developing child. Perceptions, beliefs, and causal attribution of early signs can influence families’ help-search behaviors. Lack of recognition of autism’s first manifestations can critically delay the age of diagnosis, the provision of informed guidance to families, and the implementation of adapted interventions during the critical period of early development. Furthermore, a lack of understanding of early signs as the manifestations of a developmental condition may increase stigma and non-conventional explanations. Still, cultural and socio-demographic factors are largely understudied, particularly in low-and middle-income settings. Based on the hypothesis that non-specialists such as family members and friends are one of the first sources of referral in Latin American contexts, we aimed to study the general population’s perceptions and the explanatory causes of autism’s early signs. One-hundred-and-eighty-three Ecuadorian adults responded to a questionnaire developed for this study, describing sixteen ASD-related behaviors. Results indicated that, with the exemption of language impairment and self-injurious behaviors, a substantial proportion of participants did not endorse many behaviors as “concerning and requiring professional attention.” Also, language impairment was the only behavior identified as related to a developmental disorder. Additionally, most participants attributed the majority of behaviors listed in the questionnaire to causes unrelated to ASD, such as child personality. We discuss the impact of those findings in clinical practice and on awareness programs. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9260421/ /pubmed/35814115 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915817 Text en Copyright © 2022 Buffle, Gentaz and Vivanti. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Buffle, Paulina
Gentaz, Edouard
Vivanti, Giacomo
Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title_full Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title_fullStr Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title_full_unstemmed Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title_short Perception, Beliefs, and Causal Attribution of Autism Early Signs in Ecuadorian General Population
title_sort perception, beliefs, and causal attribution of autism early signs in ecuadorian general population
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9260421/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35814115
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915817
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