Divergent Perceptions of Autistic Parents Among Health Care, Social Care, and Judicial Professionals and Autistic Adults: A Participatory Study

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Abstract
Background: Autistic people can and do become parents, yet they often feel misunderstood. They fear being judged on their parenting abilities by professionals from health care, social care, and even judicial systems, including the risk of unwarranted and disproportionate child protection investigations or interventions. Despite these concerns being frequently reported qualitatively, they have not been investigated with quantitative data. Methods: Using a participatory research framework, we co-constructed a clinical vignette and a set of questionnaire items in collaboration with autistic parents to ensure that the materials reflected their lived concerns and priorities. Professionals from health care, social, educational, judicial, and allied health fields, as well as autistic adults, were invited to complete the survey. We compared their perceptions of a fictional autistic mother, before and after diagnostic disclosure, as well as their views on professional competency regarding autism. Results: Although professionals do not hold overtly negative views, their perspectives diverge from those of autistic adults. Professionals perceived the fictional mother with high autistic traits more negatively than did autistic adults before knowing the diagnosis. In addition, judicial, medical, and paramedical professionals were less likely to identify autism than autistic adults. However, participants reported that diagnostic disclosure was somewhat reassuring and decreased their concerns about the mother’s psychological needs. Professionals rated their own competency in autism higher than autistic adults did when evaluating the professionals, although most professionals reported needing further training. Conclusion: These results provide support for autistic parents’ concerns about stigma. Divergent perspectives between professionals and autistic adults may be partly explained by a “double empathy problem,” where autistic and non-autistic individuals do not share the same reference frame for behavior. The findings underscore the importance of targeted training on autistic parenthood for all professionals, particularly those with minimal prior autism-specific training, to reduce bias and improve understanding.

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