Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward Autism Spectrum Disorders Among Japanese and American College Students

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Special Education Research SIG: Research in Special Education

Abstract

The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has been increasing around the world, but stigma associated with ASD is still widely persistent. This study compared stigmatizing attitudes towards people with ASD between 165 Japanese and 391 American college students. Participants filled out the stigma measure before and after taking the online training programmed to reduce stigma towards ASD. After the training, students in both countries exhibited significantly less stigmatizing attitude towards ASD; however, American college students exhibited significantly less stigmatizing attitude towards ASD than their Japanese counterparts on both pre- and posttest. American students also exhibited significantly higher social desirability than Japanese students. In both countries, higher social desirability was significantly correlated to less stigmatizing attitude towards ASD.

Authors

• Fumio Someki, College of Staten Island - CUNY

• Miyuki Torii, Kobe University

• Kristen Gillespie, College of Staten Island