Understanding the Stigma Associated with Autism in Older Filipino Communities: A Case Study

Background: A major disparity currently exists between White and ethnic minority families regarding the identification and diagnosis of ASD. Potential barriers to the identification of autism within these generally underrepresented ethnic communities may include stigma that is associated with ASD and is especially prevalent within the older generations of these communities. Understanding the conceptualizations held by the older generations about ASD may offer additional insight into the unique challenges that ethnic minority families who have children with ASD experience.

Objectives: To understand the experiences of an individual with stigma that she and her son encountered from the older Filipino community.

Methods: The study is a descriptive case study that thematically analyzed qualitative data from a 40-year-old Filipino mother of an 8-year-old boy with an ASD diagnosis. The principal investigator and the interviewee engaged in a video-recorded semi-structured interview that was then transcribed and thematically analyzed using an inductive approach. The interview was coded twice in order to establish interrater reliability, and a member check with the participant was performed for interpretation accuracy.

Results: Three main themes emerged from the interview: stigma, cultural differences, and generational differences. The results indicated that the stigma experienced by the interviewee was related to themes of cultural and generational differences, signifying that stigma may be both a culturally-specific and a generationally-specific phenomenon. Particularly, the interviewee cited a lack of awareness and heightened stigma regarding ASD within older generations and her inability to educate and refute those negative perceptions as a result of the cultural practice of respecting elders. The participant further shared that in order to decrease public stigma regarding ASD in the older Filipino generations, parents must first confront their own perceived stigma about ASD. The results highlight that stigma acts as a prevalent barrier in preventing parents from seeking services for their children.

Conclusions: The present study offers insight into the experiences of ethnic minority families with stigma in the context of cultural and generational differences. Future studies should include multiple participants to increase the generalizability of the results.