Attitudes of Chinese Public Towards the Autism Community: Evidence from a Decade of Weibo Data

Overview

Journal Heliyon

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2024 Sep 4

PMID 39229499

Authors

Xiaowen Li

Hao Xu

Jun Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Autism is a highly stigmatized developmental disorder in Chinese society, with the public harboring many prejudices and misunderstandings towards individuals with autism.Grounded in ABC attitude theory, explores the status, trends, and characteristics of Weibo users' attitudes towards the autism community. Utilizing natural language processing and machine learning techniques, the study analyzes 1,113,014 Weibo posts concerning autism, spanning from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2022. Findings indicate that Weibo users generally hold a positive and progressively improving attitude towards the autism community, particularly in affective and behavioral dimensions. However, the cognitive dimension of these attitudes remains relatively underdeveloped. Notable variations in attitudes and their components are evident across demographic variables such as gender, age, educational level, and verification status. These insights offer valuable guidance for policy-making by relevant authorities and contribute to enhancing public acceptance of individuals with autism.

References

Lai C, Lau Z, Lui S, Lok E, Tam V, Chan Q . Meta-analysis of neuropsychological measures of executive functioning in children and adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res. 2016; 10(5):911-939. DOI: 10.1002/aur.1723. View

Griffin J, Bauer R, Gavett B . The Episodic Memory Profile in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis. Neuropsychol Rev. 2021; 32(2):316-351. DOI: 10.1007/s11065-021-09493-5. View

Macintosh K, Dissanayake C . Annotation: The similarities and differences between autistic disorder and Asperger's disorder: a review of the empirical evidence. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2004; 45(3):421-34. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00234.x. View

Gillespie-Lynch K, Kapp S, Shane-Simpson C, Smith D, Hutman T . Intersections between the autism spectrum and the internet: perceived benefits and preferred functions of computer-mediated communication. Intellect Dev Disabil. 2014; 52(6):456-69. DOI: 10.1352/1934-9556-52.6.456. View

Ditchman N, Werner S, Kosyluk K, Jones N, Elg B, Corrigan P . Stigma and intellectual disability: potential application of mental illness research. Rehabil Psychol. 2013; 58(2):206-16. DOI: 10.1037/a0032466. View

Gillespie-Lynch K, Brooks P, Someki F, Obeid R, Shane-Simpson C, Kapp S . Changing College Students' Conceptions of Autism: An Online Training to Increase Knowledge and Decrease Stigma. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015; 45(8):2553-66. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2422-9. View

Swettenham J, Baron-Cohen S, Charman T, Cox A, Baird G, Drew A . The frequency and distribution of spontaneous attention shifts between social and nonsocial stimuli in autistic, typically developing, and nonautistic developmentally delayed infants. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1998; 39(5):747-53. View

Hallgren K . Computing Inter-Rater Reliability for Observational Data: An Overview and Tutorial. Tutor Quant Methods Psychol. 2012; 8(1):23-34. PMC: 3402032. DOI: 10.20982/tqmp.08.1.p023. View

Andreou M, Skrimpa V . Theory of Mind Deficits and Neurophysiological Operations in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review. Brain Sci. 2020; 10(6). PMC: 7349236. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10060393. View

10.

White S, Keonig K, Scahill L . Social skills development in children with autism spectrum disorders: a review of the intervention research. J Autism Dev Disord. 2006; 37(10):1858-68. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-006-0320-x. View

11.

Harrison A, Long K, Tommet D, Jones R . Examining the Role of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Social and Behavioral Ratings Within the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. J Autism Dev Disord. 2017; 47(9):2770-2782. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-017-3176-3. View

12.

Breckler S . Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1984; 47(6):1191-205. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.47.6.1191. View

13.

Draaisma D . Stereotypes of autism. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009; 364(1522):1475-80. PMC: 2677582. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0324. View

14.

Liu S, Young S . A survey of social media data analysis for physical activity surveillance. J Forensic Leg Med. 2018; 57:33-36. PMC: 6276785. DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2016.10.019. View

15.

Wei H, Li Y, Zhang Y, Luo J, Wang S, Dong Q . Awareness and knowledge of autism spectrum disorder in Western China: Promoting early identification and intervention. Front Psychiatry. 2022; 13:970611. PMC: 9686393. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.970611. View

16.

Kim Y, Leventhal B, Koh Y, Fombonne E, Laska E, Lim E . Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in a total population sample. Am J Psychiatry. 2011; 168(9):904-12. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10101532. View

17.

Sasson N, Morrison K . First impressions of adults with autism improve with diagnostic disclosure and increased autism knowledge of peers. Autism. 2017; 23(1):50-59. DOI: 10.1177/1362361317729526. View

18.

Rivard M, Terroux A, Parent-Boursier C, Mercier C . Determinants of stress in parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 2014; 44(7):1609-20. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-013-2028-z. View

19.

Li T, Zhang C, Ogihara M . A comparative study of feature selection and multiclass classification methods for tissue classification based on gene expression. Bioinformatics. 2004; 20(15):2429-37. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bth267. View

20.

Heidgerken A, Geffken G, Modi A, Frakey L . A survey of autism knowledge in a health care setting. J Autism Dev Disord. 2005; 35(3):323-30. DOI: 10.1007/s10803-005-3298-x. View