Parental Beliefs About Causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Investigation of a Research Measure Using Principal Component Analysis. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brewton, Christie M.; Mire, Sarah S.; Tolar, Tammy D.; Goin-Kochel, Robin P.; Keller-Margulis, Milena A.; Schoger, Kimberly D.; McNeel, Morgan M.
• Is Part Of: Research in autism spectrum disorders. Volume 87(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Autism spectrum disorder -- Parental perceptions -- Etiology -- IPQ-R-ASD -- Principal component analysis; Autism spectrum disorders -- Periodicals; 616.85882005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2021.101825
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-9467

Abstract

Highlights: We studied the IPQ-R-ASD Cause scale structure to better understand parents' causal beliefs about autism. Parents were more certain about what does not cause ASD rather than what does cause it. Six causal belief factors emerged, explaining approximately 61 % of the variance in item scores. The six factors: Personal Attributions, Parental Risk, Environmental Risk, Utero/Birth Stress, Biophysiological, and Metaphysical. Understanding causal beliefs could help better support families' treatment selection and implementation, and health-related decisions. Abstract: Background: Parents' perceptions about cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) influences their behaviors (e.g., treatment selection, vaccinations). The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for ASD (IPQ-R-ASD) offers a systematic way to measure parent parents' perceptions of ASD cause, but further study is needed. Method: Using principal component analysis (PCA), we investigated the factor structure of the IPQ-R-ASD Cause scale, which was administered online, in a sample of 326 North American parents (287 mothers [88 %], 39 fathers) raising children with confirmed ASD diagnoses. Results: Six factors emerged on the Cause subscale and were labeled Personal Attributions, Parental Risk Factors, Environmental Risk Factors, Utero/Birth Stress, Biophysiological, and Metaphysical. Together, these factors accounted for a cumulative variance of 61.4 %. All items exceeded the minimum loading to be considered robust, and all but one loaded positively (i.e., "Will of God). Conclusions: Understanding parental perceptions about the cause of their children's ASD may help researchers and clinicians understand important aspects of raising a child with ASD, such as stress and coping responses, treatment selection and implementation, or shared decision-making about service use. Since measurement of causal beliefs is an important initial step in this direction, the current study is helpful in establishing the viability of a measure that may extend this line of research and, ultimately, the instrument's clinical utility.