Increasing Autism Awareness in Inner-City Churches: A Brief Report. J Pediatr Nurs 2015;30(6):e63-9
Date
05/20/2015Pubmed ID
25981127DOI
10.1016/j.pedn.2015.04.008Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84947864323 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 9 CitationsAbstract
Autism diagnosis rates trail significantly in the African American community. This pre-test post-test pilot study evaluated an African American inner-city church health ambassadors (HAs) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness training session. The participants included 12 HAs who attended the 1 hour training session organized by the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Results of surveys showed higher mean scores post training for (1) HA attitudes about the potential for children to improve with applied behavior analysis therapy; (2) HA self-efficacy for having information about ASD screening materials; (3) strategies HAs could use to help parents/caregivers of children with developmental delays and challenging behaviors; (4) HA confidence in referrals for children with signs of ASD; (5) HA knowledge of measures to take to maximize a child's chance of receiving an ASD evaluation; and (6) HA comfort for talking to parents about children with challenging behaviors. Several of these effects were maintained 3 months later. Findings underscore the usefulness of the intervention for increasing the dissemination of knowledge about ASD and the opportunity to positively affect ASD screening, early intervention, and policy standards applicable to this vulnerable population.
Author List
Johnson N, Van Hecke AAuthors
Norah Johnson PhD Assistant Professor in the College ofnursing department at Marquette UniversityAmy Van Hecke PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette University
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAged
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Awareness
Child
Female
Health Education
Health Surveys
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pilot Projects
Poverty
Program Evaluation
Protestantism
Risk Assessment
United States
Urban Population
