An Initial Investigation of the Kit for Kids Peer Educational Program

Classroom-based peer interventions targeting autism ignorance, prejudice and/or discrimination: a systematic PRISMA review

“…Attitudes were assessed in 88.9% of included studies, behavioural intentions in 37%, actual behaviour in a third of all included studies (33.3%), and a measure of knowledge of autism was included in just over a quarter (25.9%). Five studies assessed three outcomes (Campbell 2007;Gus 2000;Mavropoulou and Sideridis 2014;Ranson and Byrne 2014;Staniland and Byrne 2013), and nine reported data for a single outcome: attitudes (Cook 2017;Frederickson, Warren, and Turner 2005;Gardner et al 2014;James 2011;O'Connor 2016;Reiter and Vitani 2007); actual behaviour (Houston 1998;Owen-DeSchryver et al 2008); and knowledge (Scheil, Bowers-Campbell, and Campbell 2017). Of the remaining 13 studies, six assessed both attitudes and intended behaviour (Campbell et al 2004(Campbell et al , 2005Fleva 2014Fleva , 2015Morton and Campbell 2008;Silton and Fogel 2012;Swaim 1998;Swaim and Morgan 2001), six assessed both attitudes and actual behaviour (Collet-Klingenburg, Neitzel, and LaBerge 2012;Ezzamel 2016;Ezzamel and Bond 2017;Hughes et al 2013;Simpson and Bui 2016;Sreckovic 2015;Sreckovic, Hume, and Able 2017;Whitaker et al 1998), and one assessed knowledge and attitudes (Campbell et al 2019).…”

“…Four different knowledge of autism questionnaires were used across five studies: a bespoke measure in Campbell (2007) and an adapted version of this tool (developed by Campbell and Barger 2011) was used in Campbell and colleagues' 2019 study; Mavropoulou and Sideridis (2014) used the 'Adapted Knowledge of Autism Questionnaire' (Ross and Cuskelly 2006); and the bespoke Autism Knowledge Questionnaire, developed and used by Staniland and Byrne (2013), was also used in Ranson and Byrne's study (2014). Both Gus (2000) and Scheil, Bowers-Campbell, and Campbell (2017) used qualitative methods to explore the impact of the intervention on knowledge of autism.…”

“…In contrast, participants in studies assessing stigma without a target child or towards unfamiliar peers with ASD were often those shown to be unknowing about autism (either from never having heard of autism, or an inability to provide a reasonable description/ definition) and/or in a school classroom that did not have any autistic children (Campbell et al 2004(Campbell et al , 2005Fleva 2014Fleva , 2015Morton and Campbell 2008;Scheil, Bowers-Campbell, and Campbell 2017;Silton and Fogel 2012;Swaim 1998;Swaim and Morgan 2001). In one case those classes with higher numbers of children with ASD were allocated to control conditions (Staniland and Byrne 2013).…”

“…self-reporting that they know what autism is, or what the term autism means; Campbell and Barger 2011;Campbell et al 2019;Dillenburger et al 2017). Although aware of autism, peers continue to have inaccurate knowledge of autism: being unable to accurately define what autism means (Campbell and Barger 2011;Campbell et al 2004Campbell et al , 2005Dillenburger et al 2017;Magiati, Dockrell, and Logotheti 2002); and are ignorant of autism as a disability associated with social communicative and behavioural difficulties (Scheil, Bowers-Campbell, and Campbell 2017).…”

“…A review of the theory underlying each of these forms of information has been outlined in previously published works (see for example Ranson and Byrne 2014). Thus, these educational interventions are intended to target stigma through the provision of accurate, age-appropriate and relevant information about ASD, as well as explicit strategies to better understand and interact with individuals with ASD (Scheil, Bowers-Campbell, and Campbell 2017).…”