Lecturers’ Attitudes toward Autism Identity Development in Malaysia: A Quantitative Survey
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine college lecturers’ attitudes toward autism (ASD) identity development in Malaysia. The Autism Identity Development Questionnaire was administered online to 44 lecturers to collect data that were subsequently analyzed using SPSS 26.0. Mann-Whitney U test revealed that there were no significant gender differences in lecturers’ attitudes, while Kurskal-Wallis H test indicated no significant differences in relation to age and job experience. Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that all 33 items were significant at p < 0.001, with medians showing significantly strong agreement. Results showed that a majority of the lecturers tend to demonstrate uncertain or negative attitudes toward autism identity development that might be attributed to their limited exposure to, and knowledge of, ASD. Like many neurotypicals, they tend to possess negative associations about students with ASD; therefore, they need to become more cognizant of the wide range of ASD characteristics and traits to develop more positive attitudes toward students with ASD.
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