Amor and Social Stigma: ASD Beliefs Among Immigrant Mexican Parents

Abstract

This study examined cultural beliefs about ASD and its causes among Mexican-heritage families. In focus group interviews, we asked 25 immigrant parents of children with ASD to identify words they associated with ASD and its causes. Participants free-listed, ranked, and justified their responses. Mixed methods analyses utilized saliency scores to calculate responses. Deductive interview analyses justified participants' responses. Salient responses for ASD perceptions included specific characteristics about the child (e.g., loving) and perceptions about lack of resources. Salient responses for ASD causes were vaccines, genetics, and a combination of genetics and environment. Inductive analyses revealed distinct beliefs about social stigma, child characteristics, factors supporting development, and parents' emotional stress. Interpretations linked these beliefs to promising adaptations in diagnosis and treatment.

Perceptions, Experiences, and Needs of Parents of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children with Autism: a Scoping Review

“…Lack of knowledge of autism in the community, resulting in criticism of parents for having caused the condition, and subsequent experiences of isolation and stigma were described in several papers and in relation to a range of CLD communities, including the UK Somali community (Fox et al 2017;Hussein et al 2019), the African American community (Burkett et al 2015;Lovelace et al 2018), African Immigrant mothers in the UK (Munroe et al 2016), Asian Indian families in the USA (Zechella and Raval 2016), and Hispanic families in the USA (Cohen and Miguel 2018;DuBay et al 2018;Ijalba 2016). However, these sometimes coexisted with other responses.…”

“…In addition, mothers cited environmental and lifestyle factors and fathers' diet, genetic factors, the environment, vaccine injections, and modern technology. Vaccines were also mentioned by the parents in Hussein et al (2019) and Cohen and Miguel (2018) as a possible cause of autism, with the former also mentioning a lack of sun and vitamin D and the latter genes and family history. The idea that autism was related to maternal behaviour during pregnancy was common in the studies.…”

“…In summary, the current research on the experience of CLD families of children with autism highlighted that these families need intervention programmes that are sensitive to linguistic and cultural diversity and that provide information that is appropriate for culturally and linguistically diverse groups. The families needed practitioners to take into account the lack of bilingual and culturally sensitive programmes, to review the information people may be getting in their communities (Lovelace et al 2018), the stigma they may experience (Munroe et al 2016), their cultural and religious explanatory models and values (Cohen and Miguel 2018;Gilligan 2013;Hussein et al 2019;Ijalba 2015), and coping styles (Huang and Zhou 2016). It also appears that there is a need for a more individualized approach because while clinicians and professionals were urged to take culture into account and develop programmes with the input of cultural communities (Munroe et al 2016), it was also noted that some parents expressed willingness to set aside their cultural beliefs, if they thought this would benefit their children (…”

Question–response–evaluation sequences in the home interactions of a bilingual child with autism spectrum disorder

“…The family lived in a rural part of California on the border between Mexico and the United States. Participants were recruited through their participation in a larger study examining experiences of Mexican Heritage language families of children diagnosed with ASD (Cohen and Miguel ). Herman was diagnosed with ASD in the United States at 3 years of age.…”

Child-rearing routines among Mexican-heritage children with autism spectrum disorder

“…mom and child playing together). In another study from which the current sample is drawn, Mexican-heritage mothers described their use of amor (love) and empathy to emotionally connect to their children with ASD (Cohen & Miguel, 2018). All of these studies are limited by design given their cross-sectional, retrospective nature, and their focus on participant reports.…”