Short report: Call to action for autism clinicians in response to anti-Black racism

Straiton, Diondra; Sridhar, Aksheya

doi:10.1177/13623613211043643

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Implicit racial biases pervade health service systems in the United States and the autism service system is no exception (Straiton & Sridhar, 2021). For autism-related care, Black families have reported that clinicians often dismissed the family's concerns about their child's development and attributed them to poor parenting and challenging behavior instead of autism, leading to lower quality or fewer services (Stahmer et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who gets coached? A qualitative inquiry into community clinicians’ decisions to use caregiver coaching

Tomczuk

Stewart

Beidas

et al. 2021

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Clinicians’ beliefs about an intervention’s fit with an individual family influence whether they use it with that family. The factors that influence clinicians’ decisions to implement evidence-based practices for young autistic children have yet to be evaluated systematically. These factors may partially account for the significant disparities in quality of and access to early intervention. We examined disparities in clinicians’ reported use of caregiver coaching, an evidence-based practice, with families from minoritized or structurally marginalized groups, and the perceived reasons for those disparities, to assess the factors that influence clinicians’ use of caregiver coaching. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 early intervention clinicians from publicly funded early intervention agencies in two distinct geographic regions in the United States. Clinicians identified social and structural factors, including perceived family characteristics and stigma, that influenced their beliefs about the fit of coaching with families from minoritized or structurally marginalized groups. These findings point to the presence of beliefs that likely exacerbate disparities in access to evidence-based practices and reduce the quality of care for minoritized families of young autistic children. These findings highlight the need to develop and deploy equity-focused implementation strategies to improve both access to and quality of evidence-based practices for young autistic children from minoritized groups. Lay abstract Providers’ beliefs about an intervention’s fit with a family can affect whether or not they use that intervention with a family. The factors that affect providers’ decisions to use evidence-based practices for young autistic children have not been studied. These factors may play a role in the major differences we see in the quality of and access to early intervention services in the community. We looked at differences in providers’ use of caregiver coaching, an evidence-based practice, with families from minority or vulnerable backgrounds, and the possible reasons for those differences. We did this to figure out what factors affect providers’ use of caregiver coaching. We interviewed 36 early intervention providers from early intervention agencies in two different parts of the United States. Providers pointed out things like what they thought about a family’s circumstances that affected their beliefs about how well coaching fits with minority and vulnerable families. Our findings bring attention to these beliefs that likely make accessing evidence-based practices for minority and vulnerable families harder and lessen the quality of care for these families of young autistic children. These findings highlight the need to come up with and use strategies to improve both access to and the quality of evidence-based practices for young autistic children from minority and vulnerable groups.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who gets coached? A qualitative inquiry into community clinicians’ decisions to use caregiver coaching

Tomczuk

Stewart

Beidas

et al. 2021

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As an example, a social determinant of health issue is community‐level adversity, such as being bullied, living in foster care, or witnessing violence; these experiences can lead to mental and behavioral health challenges among children (Pachter et al., 2017). Even with added context, the finding raises questions related to racism in assessment and evaluation practices (Straiton & Dridhar, 2021). But it also brings up issues of cultural relevance of the assessment tools that are used by providers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Adverse childhood experiences as context for youth assessment and diagnosis

Johnson

Cheng

Brookover

et al. 2023

Jour of Counseling & Develop

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) should be considered as context for assessment and diagnosis of depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems for youth aged 0–18. The researchers conducted a cross‐sectional study, using the public data set from the 2017–2018 National Survey of Children's Health, which represented 52,000 households of a nationally representative sample of children ages 0–17. The parent/caregiver participants reported their children aged 0–5 had higher odds than children aged 6–11 and 12–17 of a one‐unit increase in ACEs, resulting in anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems. Professional counselors can use the results as a basis to consider ACEs‐informed assessment and diagnosis practices when working with youth who present with mental health or behavior problems.

show abstract

“…Future research on child maltreatment among autistic youth should include consideration of caregiver and family trauma, in order to better understand the consequences of caregiver trauma for youth as well as why caregiver trauma and child maltreatment are linked across generations. It will be essential for research to actively prioritize the inclusion, prioritization, and affirmation of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse communities in autism research, in consultation and collaboration with diverse autistic communities (see Maye et al, 2021 andStraiton &Sridhar, 2021 for urgently and immediately needed actions for enhancing equity in autism research).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergenerational trauma: Parental PTSD and parent‐reported child abuse subtypes differentially relate to admission characteristics in the autism inpatient collection

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Autistic youth experience high rates of maltreatment. Little research has considered how distinct abuse dimensions differentially relate to meaningful outcomes, nor taken an intergenerational approach to consider how caregiver trauma and child maltreatment are related. This study sought to identify how parent-reported child abuse subtypes and parent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relate to each other and to admission characteristics upon inpatient service entry. Autistic youth (N = 527; 79% White, 21.3% girls, mean age = 12.94 years) participated in the autism inpatient collection. Parents reported on child abuse subtypes (physical, sexual, emotional) and their own PTSD, child behavior and emergency services, and parenting stress. Youth of parents with PTSD were nearly three times more likely to have parent-reported physical and emotional abuse. Autistic girls were more likely to experience parent-reported sexual abuse and a higher number of subtypes. Lower income related to higher rates of parent-reported child emotional abuse and parent PTSD. Emotional abuse associated with child behavior whereas both child physical and emotional abuse related to emergency services. Reported parent PTSD associated with child behavior and parental distress. When considered jointly, parent PTSD and number of parent-reported child abuse subtypes differentially related to child behavior and interacted to predict psychiatric hospitalizations. Intergenerational continuity of trauma is important to consider among autistic youth, and both parent-reported child abuse and parent PTSD relate to admission characteristics. Critical limitations include reliance on binary parent reports of child abuse and parent PTSD and the low representation of youth of minoritized identities. Implications for trauma-informed care are discussed.

show abstract

Short report: Call to action for autism clinicians in response to anti-Black racism

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Who gets coached? A qualitative inquiry into community clinicians’ decisions to use caregiver coaching

Who gets coached? A qualitative inquiry into community clinicians’ decisions to use caregiver coaching

Adverse childhood experiences as context for youth assessment and diagnosis

Intergenerational trauma: Parental PTSD and parent‐reported child abuse subtypes differentially relate to admission characteristics in the autism inpatient collection

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About