Autism Knowledge and Stigma among College Students at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls

Abstract

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder increases, it is important for students entering the workforce to increase their overall knowledge and decrease stigma surrounding autism. The purpose of this study was to assess current university student’s knowledge and stigma of autism through the use of the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire (ASK-Q; Harrison, Bradshaw, et al., 2017). The mean scores of each subdomain (diagnosis-15.33, etiology-14.02, treatment-12.70, and stigma-6.65) fell within the normal range, which indicated high prevalence of adequate knowledge and low stigma. The data was compared to previously published data (Stronach et al., 2019). The results of this study indicate that adequate knowledge of autism will assist in the reduction of the stigma surrounding autism.