Stigma and autism spectrum disorder: an assessment of an empathy and perspective-taking intervention

Abstract

Stigma impacts individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in substantial ways through depression, stress, social isolation, bullying, decreased academic performance, and overall health challenges. Research supports stigma interventions under conditions where empathy is evoked. Video-based modalities are an effective tool for this. Therefore, it was hypothesized that participants exposed to an empathy eliciting video, coupled with a perspective-taking task, would exhibit fewer stigmatized beliefs than participants exposed to an educational or control video. This study used experimental methodology to implement a video-based anti-stigma intervention with college-age adults enrolled at a mid-sized, Midwestern university. Stigma measurement tools include the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaires (ASK-Q) and supplemental items developed to reflect the five dimensions of stigma (Bresnahan & Zhuang, 2010). Data were analyzed using MANCOVA. Findings indicate none of the conditions were significantly different from one another, F(24, 201) = 1.003, p = .251, Wilks’ ᴧ = .720, partial η2 = .104; N = 91 total. As such, participants who viewed the empathy eliciting video did not exhibit fewer stigmatized beliefs than those in the educational and control groups. Implications include appropriate study methodology and factors associated with evoking empathy for anti-stigma purposes. Keywords: stigma, Autism, empathy, video intervention