(PS4-38) Does Accuracy in Identifying Vignettes of Autism Predict Scores on the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire

Autistic adults have reported stigma from neurotypical peers as a barrier across various domains including quality of life. (Campbell and Barger 2014; Gelbar et al. 2014). With research demonstrating the relation between autism knowledge and stigma towards autistic individuals (Kim et al., 2023, Broady et al., 2017,), measuring knowledge is crucial. However, the relation between fact-based autism knowledge and more applied measures of autism knowledge, such as accurately identifying different presentations of autism, has not been explored in the literature. This study investigated if the ability to accurately identify different vignette presentations of autism compared to some common mental health conditions can predict scores on a dichotomous measure of autism knowledge such as the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire (Harrison et al, 2017; ASK-Q).

A sample of 313 undergraduate students, with an average age of 18.98 (SD = 1.249), at a mid-Atlantic university participated in a survey measuring autism knowledge. Our sample was 63.3% female (n=198), 34.8% male (n=109), 1.3% non-binary (n=4), and .3% other (n=1). Participants knowledge of Autism was measured both through the ASK-Q and through three different vignettes depicting presentations of Autism corresponding to low, medium, and high support needs, as well as vignettes depicting Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and a vignette depicting no symptoms associated with any disorder (ND) in the DSM-V TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Participants were presented with each of the vignettes and were asked to identify the mental health condition each vignette represented and then participants completed the ASK-Q.

The low, medium, and high support needs Autism vignettes had accuracy rates of 42.2%, 72.8%, and 85%, respectively. The SAD, MDD and ND vignettes had accuracy rates of 94.6%, 90.7%, and 91.1%, respectively. McNemar’s tests showed that the two proportions were different in accuracy for Autism vignettes compared to the non-Autism vignettes (p < .001). The relation between the vignette accuracy scores and the ASK-Q scores were investigated using bivariate linear regression in SPSS. It was found that combined Autism vignette accuracy predicted scores on the ASK-Q, R² = .37, F(1, 311) = 48.7, p <  .001.

The current study found that participants' vignette accuracy predicted their ASK-Q scores, indicating that there is a strong relation between the two measures of knowledge. These findings would support the use of vignettes as an alternative measure of autism knowledge. Additionally, lower accuracy for the Autism vignettes compared to the non-Autism vignettes indicates that college students have more difficulty identifying presentations of Autism compared to other conditions such as SAD and MDD. One notable limitation includes the potential ceiling effects observed on the ASK-Q, which might be due to the inclusion of a college sample.  A future direction is to revise the ASK-Q or develop a measure assessing relevant knowledge about autistic adults as several of the items on the ASK-Q concern aspects of earlier developmental periods.