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Maternal Awareness and Prejudice as Predictors of Stigma against Autistic Children

About the Study: This research aims to explore the effect of maternal awareness and prejudice towards autism and their role as predictors of stigma against autistic children.

Who can participate in this study? If you are a woman above the age of 18, residing in India, and have a child between the ages of 0-6 years, your participation in this study would be greatly valued. What will happen if you take part in this study? This study will take around 15 minutes of your time, wherein you will be answering different questions derived from 3 questionnaires. Investigators: Alomi Maru (alomi.maru@bscpsyh.christuniversity.in, 9978837772) Darshita Goswami (darshita.goswami@bscpsyh.christuniversity.in, 7990577974) Jyotsna Verma (jyotsna.verma@bscpsyh.christuniversity.in, 7014998567) Kriti Saxena (kriti.saxena@bscpsyh.christuniversity.in, 9910895737) Saiyed Aleeza Irfan (saiyed.aleeza@bscpsyh.christuniversity.in, 8849653513) Supervisor: Dr. Shinto Thomas, Assistant Professor, CHRIST (Deemed-to-be University), Bangalore Yeshwanthpur Campus
Benefits:

Your participation in this study will contribute to the growing knowledge about autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In particular, this study can increase the research available on the social and psychological stigma surrounding this disorder.

Risks: Although there are no direct harms associated with this study, these questions may cause you to experience psychological distress in terms of your awareness, prejudices, or experiences with stigma as they can trigger uncomfortable memories, thoughts, and emotions.

We also encourage you to avail counseling services from Tele MANAS, an initiative by the Government of India (contact number: 1800 8914416), if such feelings come up. You may also reach out to us on the provided contact numbers for any further concerns.

Privacy, Confidentiality and Withdrawal: Please note that participation in this study is purely voluntary, i.e. you may choose to participate, or not, without any negative consequences to you. There will be no monetary compensation/incentives provided for your participation in this study. You may choose to withdraw from this study at any time between now and December 2024. Please email/message any of the investigators and request the withdrawal of your data. To protect your privacy as participants in this study, any identifying information that is collected in this form will be anonymized before analysis and reporting.