Education and Decreasing Stigma for Autism

Section 1: Explain an Issue 

The issue of concern is the negative impact that college students suffering from autism may encounter due to a lack of understanding among their peers. The significant surge in the number of young people diagnosed with the mental disorder has been primarily due to the improvements made in identification and treatment options. Research has shown that majority of autistic individuals have cognitive strengths. Nevertheless, those suffering from the disease in high school are less likely to enroll into colleges when compared to all other disabilities. The few that actually enroll for college struggle with the process of transition. The lack of structure and increased complexity of the higher learning institution makes it difficult to cope with and may prove to be barrier that prevents their failure to graduate. The young adults suffering from autism may not receive the understanding from other student, staff, or professors. In this way, the lack of widespread knowledge on the issue hinders the society’s ability to cope with those diagnosed (Gillespie-Lynch et al., 2015). These individuals are more likely to be vulnerable to bullying and exclusion from other students. They are considered abnormalities and unstable hence their peers will not want to be around them or help the cope with the difficulties they experience. As a result, the authors of the text created an online training program that would help enhance knowledge of the spectrum disorders and decrease the stigma associated with college students suffering from them. There is need to perform this so as to enable a higher rate of enrollment. 

Section 2: Relevance of Context 

The incidence of autism in the recent times has been associated with a ratio of 1 in every 68 births. This rate is particularly high and more people are susceptible to being diagnosed with the disease. It is evident that while autistic students may have high cognitive strength, they are dependent on the assistance of others to effectively cope with social aspects of the new environment. Based on previous research conducted on medical students, a survey revealed that the majority of students had little knowledge about the spectrum disorders. The online training program would be administered to psychology students. In this case, the study identifies that the autistic students will spend majority of their time with their peers rather than the staff members. As a result, improving the knowledge of students is more likely to ensure positive results than when the professors and other staff members receive the training. Majority of the psychology students demonstrated high baseline knowledge of autism (Gillespie-Lynch et al., 2015). Nevertheless, it was clear that there are many who hold significant misconceptions of the disorder. It is also essential to provide knowledge to college students and reduce stigma as the primary aim is to guarantee an environment that enables these patients to progress with their education. The need to conduct a research on this issue is due to the lack of structure in the colleges. Reducing stigma and increasing the knowledge of the majority population will help create a more accepting community that will make autistic students feel safe. 

Section 3: Identify Assumptions 

The researchers identify numerous assumptions that may be important in the implementation of intervention for educating students and decreasing stigma on autistic college students. The authors note that there are some areas where the individual students may demonstrate high knowledge on aspects of autism while in others they have little or close to none. For instance, majority of students are aware of the importance of individualized intervention in managing the condition while many are not aware whether or not disorder is hereditary. The researchers also made the assumption that increased contact with autism was more likely to influence openness to accepting more knowledge on the issue and expressing minimal discrimination of the individual. This was evident by the number of people who would live with an autistic person in the same building and engage in social interactions. The individual researchers noted that providing the participants of intervention to reduce incidence of stigma may result in negative attitude towards peers with autism. In this case, providing knowledge that emphasizes the cause of autism did not spark an individual’s desire to interact with a peer suffering from the disorder (Gillespie-Lynch et al., 2015). However, highlighting the similarity between the disabled person and the recipient of the information had a more positive effect. The researchers believe that a combination of explanatory and descriptive information would probably be the most effective measure of reducing the incidence of stigmatization. An alternative type of the information is the directive guidance where recipients improve their understanding on how to interact with peers with autism. 

Section 4: Understand Implications and Make Conclusions 

The research was a clear indicator that the online training program may serve as an effective and inexpensive measure for addressing the issue of knowledge and stigma about autism in the college environment. The training program led to an immediate increase in knowledge of the disability and a decline in stigma. There were large effect sizes noted in the enhancement of knowledge about autism among the participants unlike the changes in stigma. Similar to previous research on reducing stigma, there were conflicted findings (Gillespie-Lynch et al., 2015). This occurrence showed that stigma is a more difficult issue to address and will require further research to identify effective measures. The high baseline knowledge about autism is a clear indicator of the shifting attitudes towards people with autism. For instance, many of the participants recognize that people with the disability can go to college and marry thereafter. This statement highlights the belief on the identification of the people establishing independence and becoming integrated members of the society. Nevertheless, it is evident that dependence of autistic adults is an issue of concern among the participants. There was a slight decline after pre-test with numerous changes observed in the current study. Due to the difficulty identified in reducing stigmatization attitudes, the researchers advocated for addressing the different types of stigma experienced by college students including social, structural or institutionalized, and internalized. Furthermore, the research should seek to identify whether the learning had significant impact on the interaction between the students and their peers. 

References 

Gillespie-Lynch, K., Brooks, P. J., Someki, F., Obeid, R., Shane-Simpson, C., Kapp, S. K., ... & Smith, D. S. (2015). Changing college students’ conceptions of autism: An online training to increase knowledge and decrease stigma. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45 (8), 2553-2566.