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A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Knowledge and Stigma Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder Among College Students in Lebanon and the United States

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Abstract

Although misconceptions associated with ASD are apparent worldwide, they may differ across cultures. This study compares knowledge and stigma associated with ASD in a country with limited autism resources, Lebanon, and a country with substantial autism resources, the United States (US). College students in the US (N = 346) and Lebanon (N = 329) completed assessments of knowledge and stigma associated with ASD before and after an online ASD training. Although students in the US exhibited higher overall knowledge and lower stigma towards ASD, certain misconceptions were more apparent in the US than in Lebanon. Participation in the training was associated with decreased stigma and increased knowledge in both countries. Thus, online training may be useful for increasing understanding about ASD internationally.

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Notes

  1. In the full non-age-matched sample, US students more often reported having a friend with ASD compared to Lebanese students, p = .001.

  2. All statistical analyses were tested for assumptions. The following variables did not meet the proportional odds assumption of ordinal regression: importance of helping people with autism appear more normal, children with autism show attachment, and children with autism can grow up to go to college and marry. However, this assumption is violated fairly frequently (Long and Freese 2006) and similar patterns of significance were observed with non-parametric analyses.

  3. This finding was also not significant (p = .04) in the larger sample that was not age-matched.

  4. In the full-sample, Lebanese students were also less likely to agree that ASD is a lifelong disability, p < .001.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the people who participated in this training and contributed their insights to this paper. We are grateful to Fumio Someki, Steven Kapp, Christopher Cruz-Cullari, Dennis Bublitz and Joanne D’Onofrio for feedback on study materials. We thank David Rindskopf and Seamus Donnelly for their statistical consultation. The last author initially conceived of this study, played a guiding role throughout the course of the study and contributed substantially to the writing of this manuscript. This study was funded by CUNY Project REACH (Resources and Education on Autism as CUNY’s Hallmark) and the Far Fund.

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  1. Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, CUNY, New York, NY, USA

    Rita Obeid, Danielle DeNigris, Christina Shane-Simpson, Patricia J. Brooks & Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

  2. Department of Psychology, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Nidal Daou

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  1. Rita Obeid
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Obeid, R., Daou, N., DeNigris, D. et al. A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Knowledge and Stigma Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder Among College Students in Lebanon and the United States. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 3520–3536 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2499-1

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