Who Is Attending? The Role of Child Ethnicity and Maternal Demographics in Research Engagement and Early Identification of Autism

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Abdullahi, I., Sadka, N., Gilbert, M., & Barbaro, J. (2023). Who Is Attending? The Role of Child Ethnicity and Maternal Demographics in Research Engagement and Early Identification of Autism. Brain Sciences, 13(6), 903. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13060903

Publication date: 2 Jun 2023 Added to AutiHub: 7 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Ifrah Abdullahi
  2. Nancy Sadka
  3. Melissa Gilbert
  4. Josephine Barbaro *

Abstract

Inequitable access to early autism developmental surveillance is evident globally. However, there is limited research examining autism diagnosis, ethnicity, and community profiles when engaging in research for the early identification of autism. We aimed to understand the relationships between child ethnicity, maternal demographics, and autism diagnosis, comparing retrospective data from the 2016 census for eight local government areas (LGAs) in Victoria, Australia. Maternal and child health (MCH) nurses monitored 13,511 children under 42 months for the early signs of autism using the Social Attention Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R) and SACS-R Preschool (SACS-PR) tools during well-child checks. Of these, 340 children with a “high likelihood” of autism attended developmental assessments. Participants’ maternal ethnicity (‘European maternal ethnicity’, EME; ‘non-European maternal ethnicity,’ N-EME; ‘mixed maternal ethnicity,’ MME’), socioeconomic factors, and autism prevalence were compared to their LGA community. Results indicated that study participants were representative of their LGA communities, though bi- and multilingualism was higher in our cohort. Differences in current maternal employment, maternal education, annual family income, and autism prevalence were found between the N-EME, EME, and MME groups. Our study found that research engagement was driven by maternal education, maternal employment, and annual family income, and further research is required to understand these relationships.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 07:09.

Cited references
50
With a DOI
45
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
5 / 50 (10.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 50 (8.0%)
References with detected author names
46 / 50 (92.0%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
4
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
399
From DOI or external metadata
399
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
72 / 399 (18.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 327 / 399 (82.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
5 / 399 (1.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 5 / 72 (6.9%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 317 (0.3%).
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