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Piecing together the puzzle: Development of the Societal Attitudes towards

Autism (SATA) scale

Article  in  Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs · January 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01224.x

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Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs · Volume •• · Number •• · 2012 ••–••
doi: 10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01224.x

Piecing together the puzzle: development of the

Societal Attitudes towards Autism (SATA) scale jrs3_1224 1..8

Luci N. Flood, Amanda Bulgrin and Betsy L. Morgan

University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, USA

Key words: Autism, attitudes, scale development, college students.

due to the American Disabilities Act, current students are

The rise in the prevalence of autism creates a need more likely to interact with high-functioning individuals
for a reliable and valid measure of attitudes towards with autism across several educational settings. Nevill
autism. The current study describes the develop- and White (2011) found that college students with a first
ment of a brief 16- item measure of Societal Atti- degree relative with autism reported more openness towards
tudes towards Autism (SATA) that exhibits sound
interacting with individuals with autism than did college
psychometric properties and has a demonstrated
ability to discriminate between expert and general
students without such experience.
college student samples. The final SATA was the
result of pilot work on 75 items and exploratory and Despite the high levels of autism diagnosis, attitudes
confirmatory factor analyses on a 45-item version towards autism are relatively understudied. One aspect of
with 475 undergraduates. Knowledge and personal understanding current views towards autism is to develop
distance subscales yielded inconsistent reliability measures to accurately detect individuals’ authentic atti-
and validity outcomes. The SATA showed strong tudes towards autism. An accurate measure will give
content and construct validity as evidenced by researchers and practitioners a better understanding of the
known groups discrimination, and predicted asso- public’s orientation towards autism. This paper describes
ciations with an attitude towards disability measure, the revision and validation of a measure designed specifi-
an autism preference item, and a measure of
cally to assess attitudes towards autism.
implicit attitudes towards disabilities.
Attitudes towards disabilities
Social scientists describe attitudes as the psychological
Autism is a disorder that affects more children than juvenile tendency to evaluate people or beliefs as either favourable
diabetes, childhood cancer, and paediatric AIDS combined or unfavourable (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993). Much of past
each year. Experts estimate that autism is diagnosed in one research on attitudes towards disabilities has focused on
out of every 91–110 births and affects 1.5 million people in physical disabilities (e.g., Rojahn, Komelasky and Man,
the USA (Kogan et al., 2009; National Survey of Children’s 2008; Stewart, 1988). In addition, past measures tend to
Health, 2007). Autism is a general term used to describe a measure attitudes towards disabilities at a more global level
group of complex developmental brain disorders known as (across multiple disabilities) rather than specific level
Pervasive Developmental Disorders (American Psychiatric (a particular disability or diagnosis) (Antonak, 1981; Pruett
Association, 2000). More specifically, autism spectrum and Chan, 2006; Seo and Chen, 2009; Yuker, Block and
disorders are characterised by atypical development in Young, 1966).
‘socialization, communication, and behavior’, and symp-
toms generally include ‘abnormalities in cognitive func- Several measures exist to assess attitudes towards autism
tioning, learning, attention, and sensory processing’ (Rice, for specific subgroups of individuals. Many of the existing
2009, p. 1). Autism encompasses a complex spectrum of measures involve reactions to the behaviour of children
behaviours and outcomes that are reflected in a common with autism by adults (Iobst, Nabors and Rosenzweig et al.,
saying in the autism community, ‘If you’ve met one person 2009), parents (e.g., Hebert and Koulouglioti, 2010), teach-
with Autism – you’ve met one person with Autism’ (Shore, ers (e.g., Park, Chitiyo and Choi, 2010) and schoolmates
Rastelli and Grandin, 2006). (e.g., Campbell, 2008; Morton and Campbell, 2008; Reiter
and Vitani, 2007; Silton, 2010). In addition, several studies
The rise of autism rates has been linked primarily to have focused on the relationship between attitude and
a combination of increased awareness and more accurate knowledge of autism on the placement of children with
diagnoses (e.g., Hertz-Picciotto and Delwiche, 2009). autism in mainstream classrooms (e.g., Horrocks, White
Given the large number of potential children and adults with and Roberts, 2008; Middleton, 2006; Simpson, Griswold
autism diagnoses now and in the future, it is important to and Myles, 1999). Fewer studies exist with the purpose of
ensure that the general public is educated about autism and providing an attitudes towards autism measure aimed at a
prepared to interact with people with autism. In addition, more general population.

© 2012 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2012 NASEN. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 1
Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

Mahoney (2008) adapted the Mental Retardation Attitude a child with autism as a close friend’ that we modified to
Inventory- Revised (Antonak and Harth, 1994) to develop be more salient to college students reading ‘I would be
the Autism Attitudes Inventory (AAI). The AAI appears to comfortable having a friend with autism’. In addition, we
be the first scale specifically developed to measure attitudes created 35 items developed for a potential subscale created
towards autism and includes approximately 60 questions to assess knowledge regarding autism behaviours and
regarding interactions with people with autism that are cat- causes. Many of the added items were based on the
egorised into three major areas: social distance (the extent two primary authors’ one-on-one work with children with
to which respondents are willing to interface with persons autism via community-service organisations. As indicated
with autism across situations), academic integration (beliefs in the results, four of Mahoney’s original items (three of
regarding inclusion of children with autism in mainstream which were modified) remain in the final scale.
schools) and private rights (the rights of individuals with
autism). Although one of the first serious attempts at an A pilot sample of 54 undergraduates completed the first
attitudes towards autism scale, Mahoney’s scale does not version of the scale created from Mahoney’s work with our
include items that tap respondent’s knowledge about modifications and additions and comprised of 75 items.
autism’s causes and behavioural outcomes, has not been This pilot group received extra credit for participation, com-
fully vetted for construct validity and has not been pub- pleted the scale online, and was provided textboxes after
lished in a peer-reviewed journal. Given the large variability every set of five items with the prompt ‘Please review the
in the public’s beliefs about the causes of autism (e.g., questions above. Are any of them confusing? Poorly
Goin-Kochel and Myers, 2005), some of which are errone- worded? Not make sense to you? If so, please indicate
ous (e.g., vaccines, gluten-free diets) and the relatively which question by number and explain the problem’. In
small number of consistently apparent behaviours associ- addition, a response item of ‘not enough knowledge’ was
ated with autism behaviours, we felt that the addition of included with each item.
knowledge items was important in an attitudes towards
autism scale.
The second version of the ATA was comprised of 45 items
Developing an attitudes towards autism scale culled from the original 75 after discarding items that
In this paper, we describe the development of an attitude showed low variance, were flagged as vague and/or a sub-
towards autism scale and report on the processes associated stantial percentage of respondents answered ‘not enough
with establishing its reliability and validity. The purpose of knowledge’. In addition, items were modified based on the
the study was to develop an attitude towards autism scale feedback from two autism experts (a college professor and
that reflected societal attitudes and knowledge of the disor- a supervisor at a local institution for children with cognitive
der. The end result is a 16-item measure that can be used to disabilities). For example, an item in the knowledge sub-
assess societal attitudes towards autism. The development scale previously worded ‘Individuals with autism display
of a psychometrically sound measure assessing attitudes “flapping” behaviors’ was reworded to read ‘All individuals
towards autism services several functions. An attitudes with autism demonstrate repetitive behaviors, such as
towards autism scale allows researchers to distinguish rocking or flapping of arms or hands’. The 45-item version
between more general attitudes towards disabilities and spe- continued to represent the four hypothesised subscales:
cific attitudes towards autism. A psychometrically sound social distance, academic integration, private rights and
scale allows researchers to assess change in attitudes knowledge of behaviour and causes.
towards autism over time and/or between groups. In addi-
tion, the relationships between predictors and correlates of Four hundred and seventy-five US undergraduates (70%
attitudes towards autism can be explored. Finally, an atti- female; 90% Caucasian, representing a wide range of
tudes towards autism scale can be used as an educational majors from across the campus) completed the 45-item
and/or screening tool to enhance dialogues with pre-service scale online and received extra credit for participation
teachers and other individuals who will be working directly (2 credits provided for a class with approximately 700
with children or adults with autism. Overall, scholarly pur- points available from traditional assessments such as
suits, social policy and educational ventures regarding exams, discussions and worksheets). Unfortunately, 182
autism may all be informed by the appropriate use of an participants failed to provide demographic information,
attitudes towards autism scale. although they completed the scale items. All versions of the
ATA utilised a four-point response scale of ‘1 strongly dis-
Method agree to 4 strongly agree’ with no midpoint and coded such
The development of an Attitudes towards Autism Scale that a high score indicates high acceptance or high knowl-
(ATA) was comprised of several stages. The original devel- edge. In addition, respondents provided the extent to which
opment of items built upon the 23 attitudes towards autism they have had contact with individuals with autism, which
items from Mahoney’s (2008) dissertation research result- was coded as 1 experience for each of the following: Little
ing in a 23-item scale representing three factors – social to no contact, have been employed somewhere where I
distance, academic integration and private rights. We modi- work with a person with autism, have a friend with autism,
fied and added items according to his three subscales for have a family member with autism, have volunteered with
validation with a younger participant pool. For instance, a person with autism, have been a primary caregiver for a
Mahoney had an item reading ‘Willing for my child to have person with autism, other (Range 0–4; M = 0.77; SD = 0.76;

2 © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2012 NASEN
 Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

39% of the sample had no contact with an individual with organisation as a list of students who were potentially
autism). interested in volunteering. We do not know if the organisa-
tion utilised the information and/or if any of the students
Validity measures provided service to the organisation.
In addition to completing the ATA, the 475-undergraduate
sample also completed several measures aimed at establish- Disability attitudes implicit association test. At the con-
ing the validity of the ATA; several of the validity measures clusion of the survey containing the ATA items, participants
were collected with the original sample but several weeks indicated their interest in taking part in a related study.
after the initial ATA data collection. Approximately 8 weeks after the survey, 58 respondents
received additional extra credit for completing an implicit
Preference towards persons with autism. At the time of the association test associated with disability attitudes in a
ATA data collection, respondents also completed a seven- computer lab. Implicit attitudes are unacknowledged or
point item measuring their overall appraisal of individuals outside of awareness (Greenwald and Banaji, 1995), and the
with autism ranging from ‘I strongly prefer people with most common measure of implicit attitudes is the implicit
autism to people without autism’ to ‘I strongly prefer people association test (IAT) (Dasgupta, Greenwald and Banaji,
without autism to people with autism’ M = 4.89; SD = 0.94 2003). The IAT features several variants including one that
indicating a slight preference for people without autism to assesses implicit attitudes towards people with disabilities
people with autism. (Disability Attitude Implicit Association Test or DA-IAT).
Pruett and Chan (2006) validated the DA-IAT and found
Attitudes towards disabled persons. Two weeks after that contact with persons with disabilities was the strongest
completing the second version of the ATA, a subset of the correlate.
undergraduate sample (n = 283) completed the Attitudes
towards Disabled Persons (ATDP) online for additional The participants for the current study arrived at a computer
extra credit points. The ATDP measures attitudes towards lab and completed the DA-IAT at the original source
people with disabilities via respondents’ self-report and is website (projectimplicit.net) and reported the score pro-
one of the most highly utilised scales in the field (Yuker, vided by the site on a sheet of paper with their unique
Block and Young, 1970). The ATDP is valid and reliable identifiers. Participants’ responses place them in one of
and somewhat susceptible to social desirability (Pruett seven categories ranging from ‘strong automatic preference
and Chan, 2006). The ATDP has three different formats: for abled people compared to disabled people’ to ‘strong
ATDP-O, ATDP-A, ATDP-B. Form O and A were found to automatic preference for disabled people compared to abled
be the most reliable and valid. In order to shorten the scale, people’. The 22 respondents for this study for whom we had
we selected 14 questions most germane to the current study ATA and DA-IAT scores showed very little variance and
from forms O (questions 2, 4, 6, 7, 13 and 17) and A clustered into only two of the response categories – either
(questions 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 24, 26 and 29). Sample questions ‘strong’ or ‘moderate’ preference for abled people.
included ‘People with disabilities are just as intelligent as
people without disabilities’ and ‘People with disabilities are Participants who complete the DA-IAT match words and
more emotional than people without disabilities’. All of the pictures. Participants first match symbols (e.g., signage
items were reworded to use people first language from images such as the wheelchair icon associated with the
‘disabled persons’ to ‘people with disabilities’. disability access or a cross-country skier image) to either
disabled or non-disabled. Then, participants matched words
Behavioural intention. At the time of the ATDP adminis- to either good or bad. Finally, they match symbols and
tration, students were asked a question aimed at assessing words to either disabled + good or non-disabled + bad
their behavioural intention towards interacting with indi- and vice versa. The matching of good words with disabled
viduals with disabilities. ‘Would you be interested in having symbols indicates incongruent associations whereas match-
your name and email provided to a local community orga- ing bad words with disabled symbols are considered
nization that utilizes students to work with individuals with congruent associations. The shorter the pause, the more
disabilities for potential contact in the Spring regarding strongly variables are implicitly associated. Implicit attitude
volunteering?’ Four options were coded: ‘1 = No – I am not measures are often regarded as more accurate measures
interested’ (26%), ‘2 = No – not at this time’ (48%), ‘3 = Yes of attitudes as compared with explicit attitudes and provide
– but not for this coming semester’ (5%), or ‘4 = Yes – the benefit of no known ways for participants to manipulate
please submit my name and email’ (20%). The responses the results or trick the measure (Greenwald, Poehlman and
from the students were matched to earlier responses by a Uhlmann et al., 2009).
unique identifier. The survey was designed such that stu-
dents who indicated that they wished to have their contact Known groups. A convenience sample of an ‘expert’ group
information provided to a volunteer coordinator provided comprised of direct service providers working with children
this information in an independent survey. Consequently, with autism at three different organisations completed the
the names and emails from the students were separated 45-item ATA. Complete data was available from 22 direct
from all other responses. The contact information of stu- service providers who were 90% female, 95% Caucasian
dents who indicated ‘3’ or ‘4’ and provided contact infor- and ranged in age from 19–45 with a mean age of 24. The
mation was provided to a local direct service community experts were asked to estimate the percentage of their work

© 2012 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2012 NASEN 3
Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

days they spend working with individual(s) with autism and determined three interpretable factors. A confirmatory
the mean response was 38%. factor analysis on the three-factor solution was conducted.
Table 1 shows the factor loadings on the three factors rep-
Results resenting Societal Attitudes (16 items), Personal Distance
Factor analysis (5 items) and Knowledge (5 items). Items with negative
First, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the factor loadings or loadings below .25 were discarded. The
results from the 475-undergraduate sample according to overall variance explained with three-factor solution was
Mahoney’s (2008) three proposed subscales and our fourth .21. All the factor analyses used oblique rotation due to
subscale based on knowledge of autism. A four-factor solu- expected associations among the subscales.
tion yielded uninterpretable factors. Second, we conducted
an exploratory factor analysis (SPSS principle axis factor- Reliability and subscale correlation analyses. Cronbach’s
ing) on the same data. Utilising communalities, factors alpha values depicting the level of internal consistency for
with Eigen values over 1 and factor loadings over .25, we each of the subscales were as follows: Societal Attitudes

Table 1: Factor loadings and descriptive data for the three subscales of the Attitudes towards Autism Scale
Factor 1: Factor 3:
societal Factor 2: personal
Items listed in order of strength of factor loading attitudes knowledge distance Mean SD
R
FACTOR 1: People with autism should not engage in romantic relationships. 0.769 1.53 0.57
People with autism should have the opportunity to go to college. 0.768 1.50 0.54
R
People with autism should not have children. 0.668 1.82 0.68
People with autism should be institutionalised for their safety and others.R 0.635 1.46 0.54
If a facility to treat people with autism opened in my community, I would consider 0.650 1.36 0.55
moving out.R
Individuals with autism are incapable of living on their own.R 0.609 1.84 0.65
I would be afraid to be around a person with autism.R 0.585 1.51 0.60
R
A person with autism is an emotional burden to his/her family. 0.574 1.79 0.72
I would be comfortable sitting next to a person with autism in the same class. 0.547 1.79 0.63
A person with autism is a financial burden to his/her family.R 0.500 1.88 0.69
People with autism should be encouraged to marry someone with autism.R 0.480 1.71 0.57
People with autism are incapable of forming relationships and expressing affection.R 0.472 1.63 0.62
Children with autism should be fully integrated into mainstream classes.* 0.340 2.31 0.66
I would be uncomfortable hugging a person with autism.R 0.309 1.95 0.97
People with autism cannot understand other people’s feelings.R 0.282 1.91 0.67
Students with autism who are mainstreamed into regular classrooms are a distraction to 0.278 2.15 0.55
R
students without autism in that classroom.
FACTOR 2: People with autism require additional support to be successful in the work 0.429 2.68 0.57
R
place.
People with autism tend to be violent.R 0.392 2.14 0.55
Mainstreaming children with autism into regular education classrooms poses a safety risk 0.317 1.97 0.53
for children without autism in the same classroom.R
People with autism need assistance communicating with others.R 0.311 2.44 0.58
All individuals with autism demonstrate repetitive behaviours, such as rocking or flapping 0.305 2.31 0.74
R
of arms or hands.
FACTOR 3: I would be comfortable sharing an office with a co-worker with autism. 0.786 2.39 0.51
I would be comfortable sitting next to a person with autism in a movie theatre.** 0.712 2.45 0.55
I would be comfortable having a person with autism living in the same building as me.** 0.591 2.40 0.52
I would be comfortable having a friend with autism.** 0.484 2.50 0.55
People with autism are capable of living normal lives (i.e., with a job, house, family, etc). 0.280 2.38 0.50

*Original item from Mahoney (2008).

**Item modified from Mahoney (2008).
R
Reverse coded.
Four-point response scale of ‘1 strongly disagree to 4 strongly agree’.

4 © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2012 NASEN
 Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

Table 2: Attitudes towards Autism Scale subscale Table 4: Expert and undergraduate comparisons on the
factor correlations factors of the Attitudes towards Autism Scale
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Experts Undergraduates
(n = 22) (n = 473) t values
Factor 1 societal attitudes 1.00 0.43* -0.26*
mean (SD) mean (SD) (df = 493)
Factor 2 knowledge 1.00 -0.07
Social attitudes 54.38 (4.47) 28.14 (5.85)* 20.27**
Factor 3 personal distance 1.00
(Factor 1)
*P < 0.05. Knowledge (Factor 2) 13.50 (1.60) 11.53 (1.74)* 5.29**
Personal distance 17.90 (1.80) 12.13 (1.80)* 14.73**
(Factor 3)
Table 3: Correlations among the factors and associated
with the attitudes towards autism validity *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01.
Autism Behavioural
ATDP statement DA-IAT intention
Societal attitudes 0.45* 0.53* 0.17 -0.22 Factor 2, Knowledge, needs additional research to provide a
factor 1 reliable measure for the purpose of measuring knowledge of
Knowledge factor 2 0.35* 0.26* 0.39 -0.01 autism. The reliability on the recommended final version
Personal distance 0.05 -0.06 0.20 0.10 of the SATA is .86 with a range of 17–57, possible range
of 16–64, normally distributed, M = 28.14, median = 28,
factor 3
SD = 6.30; n = 461).
ATA26 0.49* 0.53* 0.33 -0.16

Note. *P < 0.05 – higher scores on all measures indicate more acceptance Discussion
of individuals with disabilities. This paper introduces a reliable and valid measure of soci-
ATA, Attitudes towards Autism Scale; ATDP, Attitudes towards Disabled
Persons; DA-IAT, Disability Attitude Implicit Association Test. etal attitudes towards autism (SATA). The SATA was found
to have good internal consistency and construct validity.
The validity analysis of the SATA indicates that attitudes
towards autism are related but distinct from attitudes
(16 items = 0.86), Personal Distance (5 items = 0.71) and towards disabilities. Autism spectral disorders reflect a wide
Knowledge (5 items = 0.47). Overall, a total scale from the range of behaviours and outcomes, and autism is a cognitive
26 items yielded an alpha of .77. However, the subscales disorder with behavioural implications (Rice, 2009);
were inconsistently related to one another (see Table 2). whereas disability reflects a more physical and general cat-
egory. A scale specific to the measurement of attitudes
Validity analyses towards autism is necessary for researchers and practitio-
Table 3 shows the correlations between the validity mea- ners whose intent is the study of autism. Overall, the SATA
sures, the three subscales of the ATA and the total 26-item shows strong content, construct and known groups validity
ATA. Convergent validity was explored for the ATA through as indicated by several best practices in scale develop-
correlations with the ATDP, the Preference for Persons with ment (Bellini and Hopf, 2007; Robinson, Shaver and
Autism Statement, DA-IAT and the Behavioral Intention. Wrightsman, 1991). High scores on the SATA are consistent
As expected, the subscales of the ATA all showed small with high scores on appropriate validity measures. Further-
positive correlations with the DA-IAT indicating that the more, the SATA has preliminarily demonstrated the ability
explicit scale is associated with implicit attitudes but also to discriminate between expert and general college student
susceptible to social desirability. Factor 1 (societal atti- samples.
tudes) and Factor 2 (knowledge) both showed a medium
positive association with the attitudes towards disabled The SATA showed a small positive correlation with the
persons and the autism statement. There were no significant DA-IAT (.17) indicating that the explicit scale is associated
differences between the behavioural intention item and any with implicit attitudes. However, the DA-IAT is a more
of the factors. In addition, the results from the expert group global measure towards disabilities rather than autism, and
were compared with the results from the undergraduates to the DA-IAT focuses on physical disabilities. However, our
establish known groups validity. As expected, the experts sample was small for this analysis of implicit attitudes, and
indicated higher acceptance and more accurate knowledge further study is needed. Given the small effect size of the
than did the undergraduates (see Table 4). correlation, we expect that, like many attitude scales, the
SATA is susceptible to social desirability effects. Social
Final scale desirability is the tendency to modify or censor attitudes
Based on the factor analysis, reliability and validity analy- and beliefs according to the respondents’ beliefs about their
sis, we recommend the use of factor one – for a reliable and level of acceptability to the researchers and/or society. Atti-
valid measure of societal attitudes towards autism (SATA). tudes towards persons with disabilities have been shown
Factor 1 already reflects some personal distance items to be susceptible to social desirability (Hergenrather and
captured in factor 3. Consequently, we do not believe that Rhodes, 2007; Hofmann, Gawronski and Gschwendner
Factor 3 substantially adds to the literature. However, et al., 2005; Pruett and Chan, 2006). However, attitudes

© 2012 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2012 NASEN 5
Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

often reflect both real and exaggerated acceptance towards Application of the SATA will help to further understand
previously misunderstood or negatively assessed groups current attitudes towards autism by providing researchers
when societies experience significant social change (Banaji and practitioners a better understanding of the public’s
and Heiphetz, 2010). orientation towards autism. The SATA may be used in
conjunction with programs to increase public knowledge,
The two subscales that showed variable validity and reli- awareness and acceptance of autism, and individual’s
ability deserve additional attention. Although personal dis- attitudes towards autism. The SATA may be useful in
tance items are reflected in the SATA, the factor analysis monitoring attitude over time or in response to awareness
indicated a distinct factor for several of the distance items, campaign. The scale may be helpful in initiating conversa-
and the subscale did not yield the same pattern of validity tions with individuals interested in working with individu-
correlations that the SATA yielded. We suspect that the als with autism such as pre-service teachers for special
personal distance items more accurately reflect an indivi- education (e.g., Park et al., 2010).
dual’s personal willingness to regularly and closely inter-
face with individuals with autism. The SATA reflects more Overall, the rapid increase in autism and the research asso-
abstracted concepts than personal willingness. Conse- ciated with society’s response to autism indicate a need for
quently, the personal distance factor shows no consistent a reliable and valid measure for the assessment of indivi-
associations with the validity measures that would indicate dual’s attitudes towards autism. The items that comprise the
an attitude structure. It is possible that this subscale could SATA were drawn from recurrent themes in the literature
be valid for individuals with consistent contact with indi- and the experience of those of us who have worked closed
viduals with autism. It is not surprising that the knowledge alongside individuals with autism. We encourage additional
subscale yielded low internal consistency. Autism is a dis- research with the SATA to gain further insight into corre-
order that is complex due to its spectrum nature. No two lates and patterns of attitudes towards autism.
individuals are exactly alike, which makes for discrepancies
in agreement between professionals. An individual’s level
of knowledge is likely dependent on how each person gen-
eralises the symptoms and behaviours of the individuals Acknowledgement
with autism he/she knows. Furthermore, the assessment of This research was supported in part by an undergraduate
knowledge towards autism is further frustrated by the large research grant from the University of Wisconsin – La
discrepancy between popular and scientific beliefs (e.g., the Crosse.
effects of a gluten-free diet or the debunked vaccine hypo-
theses) and the fundamental lack of knowledge/agreement
over the etiology of autism (Godlee, Smith and Marcovitch,
2011; Offit, 2010; University of Rochester Medical Center, Address for correspondence
2010). Knowledge measures exist for subgroups who share Betsy Morgan,
a common set of (e.g., speech pathologists; Cascella and Department of Psychology,
Colella, 2004); however, developing a scale to measure University of Wisconsin,
knowledge of autism for a general population will be mul- 1725 State Street,
tifaceted and challenging. Further study in this area is La Crosse, WI 54601,
needed to develop a reliable knowledge of autism scale. USA.
Email: [email protected].
Finally, none of the subscales of the ATA were correlated
with the behavioural intention measure. Although attitude-
behaviour associations tend to be low (Banaji and Heiphetz,
2010), we suspect that our behavioural intention measure References
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and valid for use with a general population, the scale Banaji, M. R. & Heiphetz, L. (2010) ‘Attitudes.’ In S. T.
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 Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, •• ••–••

Bertoglio, K. & Hendren, R. L. (2009) ‘New with autism in Pennsylvania public schools.’ Journal
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