Perceptions divergentes des parents autistes chez les professionnels des secteurs sanitaire, social et judiciaire et chez les adultes autistes : une étude participative

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

Lacroix, A., Vallet, W., Lai, M. C., Langloys, D., Pignard, M., Brunelin, J., Dubreucq, M., & Demily, C. (2026). Divergent Perceptions of Autistic Parents Among Health Care, Social Care, and Judicial Professionals and Autistic Adults: A Participatory Study. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1177/25739581261457376

Date de publication: 17/06/2026 Ajout dans AutiHub: 09/08/2026 Type: Article Langue de l’article: Anglais

Cette publication est intégrée dans AutiHub via :

Auteurs

Auteur·ices des publications
8
Auteur·ices de la publication identifié·es comme autistes
1 / 8 (12,5 %)

Résumé

Contexte : Les personnes autistes peuvent devenir parents et le deviennent effectivement, mais elles se sentent souvent incomprises. Elles craignent d’être jugées sur leurs capacités parentales par des professionnels des secteurs sanitaire, social et même judiciaire, y compris en raison du risque d’enquêtes ou d’interventions de protection de l’enfance injustifiées et disproportionnées. Bien que ces préoccupations soient fréquemment rapportées de manière qualitative, elles n’ont pas été étudiées à l’aide de données quantitatives. Méthodes : En utilisant un cadre de recherche participative, nous avons coconstruit une vignette clinique et un ensemble d’items de questionnaire en collaboration avec des parents autistes afin de garantir que les documents reflétaient leurs préoccupations et priorités vécues. Des professionnels des domaines de la santé, du social, de l’éducation, de la justice et du paramédical, ainsi que des adultes autistes, ont été invités à répondre à l’enquête. Nous avons comparé leurs perceptions d’une mère autiste fictive, avant et après la révélation du diagnostic, ainsi que leurs opinions sur la compétence professionnelle relative à l’autisme. Résultats : Bien que les professionnels n’aient pas d’opinions manifestement négatives, leurs perspectives divergent de celles des adultes autistes. Les professionnels ont perçu la mère fictive présentant des traits autistiques marqués plus négativement que les adultes autistes avant de connaître le diagnostic. De plus, les professionnels judiciaires, médicaux et paramédicaux étaient moins susceptibles d’identifier l’autisme que les adultes autistes. Toutefois, les participants ont indiqué que la révélation du diagnostic était quelque peu rassurante et diminuait leurs préoccupations concernant les besoins psychologiques de la mère. Les professionnels ont évalué leur propre compétence en matière d’autisme comme plus élevée que ne l’ont fait les adultes autistes lorsqu’ils évaluaient les professionnels, bien que la plupart des professionnels aient déclaré avoir besoin d’une formation supplémentaire. Conclusion : Ces résultats étayent les préoccupations des parents autistes concernant la stigmatisation. Les perspectives divergentes entre les professionnels et les adultes autistes peuvent être en partie expliquées par un « problème de double empathie », selon lequel les personnes autistes et non autistes ne partagent pas le même cadre de référence pour le comportement. Les résultats soulignent l’importance d’une formation ciblée sur la parentalité autiste pour tous les professionnels, en particulier ceux ayant reçu peu de formation préalable spécifique à l’autisme, afin de réduire les biais et d’améliorer la compréhension.

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.

Bibliographie citée par cette référence

Les références citées sont importées depuis des sources externes de métadonnées lorsqu’elles sont disponibles. La liste peut être partielle.

Vue d’ensemble de l’inclusion dans la bibliographie

Ces indicateurs décrivent la bibliographie citée importée pour cette publication. Les métriques de références citées utilisent le total des références citées comme dénominateur. Les métriques d’auteurices cité·es indiquent si elles utilisent toutes les occurrences d’auteurices cité·es ou seulement les occurrences rattachées à des auteurices déjà intégré·es à la base de données AutiHub. Ils utilisent les rattachements mis en cache entre les auteurices cité·es et les auteurices intégré·es à la base de données AutiHub. Dernier calcul : 16/08/2026 11:31.

Références citées
68
Nombre total de références citées intégrées pour cette publication.
Références citées avec un·e auteur·ice identifié·e comme autiste
12 / 68 (17,6 %)
Occurrences d’auteur·ices cité·es identifié·es comme autistes
25 / 267 (9,4 %)
Parmi les occurrences rattachées à des auteurices intégré·es à la base de données AutiHub : 25 / 97 (25,8 %). Auteurices cité·es distinct·es identifié·es comme autistes : 23 / 250 (9,2 %).
Occurrences citées rattachées à la base AutiHub
97 / 267 (36,3 %)
Auteurices cité·es distinct·es rattaché·es : 82 / 250 (32,8 %)
Occurrences rattachées, non identifiées comme autistes
72 / 97 (74,2 %)
Parmi les seules occurrences rattachées. Sur l’ensemble des occurrences d’auteurices cité·es : 72 / 267 (27,0 %). Auteurices cité·es distinct·es rattaché·es, non identifié·es comme autistes : 59 / 82 (72,0 %).
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