Autistic and Non-Autistic Undergraduates’ Responses to a Textbook Vignette on Autism
This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.
About the autistic author markerStockwell, K. M., Steinmann, T., & Jaswal, V. K. (2025). Autistic and Non-Autistic Undergraduates’ Responses to a Textbook Vignette on Autism [Preprint]. Center for Open Science. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/akxrs_v2
This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:
Authors
Abstract
College students may encounter deficit-focused content about autism in classes they take—content that could shape their beliefs about autism and, for autistic students, negatively affect their self-esteem. In this study, we asked how autistic (n=86) and non-autistic (n=86) undergraduates in the United States responded to a short vignette from a popular psychology textbook, which portrays an autistic child in potentially stigmatizing ways. Autistic participants—particularly those who reported stronger autistic identity—rated the vignette as more offensive and stigmatizing than did non-autistic participants. Autistic participants also rated the vignette as less useful for understanding autism than did non-autistic participants. Finally, more autistic than non-autistic students reported lower self-esteem after reading the vignette compared to before reading it. These findings highlight the potential harms of deficit-focused portrayals of autism in educational materials and underscore the need for more respectful representations.
Related publications
These links indicate preprints, protocols, published versions, or related records identified in AutiHub.
Other versions of the same publication
Bibliography cited by this reference
Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.
No cited bibliography is currently integrated for this reference. This does not necessarily mean that no bibliography exists.