Determinants of Perceptions of People with ASD among Russians

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of people with an actual diagnosis - autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, this is not associated with an increase of the amount of people with ASD, but rather with an improvement in the criteria of diagnostics, greater knowledge and a deeper understanding of what ASD is. Thus, most people still do not understand what the ASD is, in what way it affects the people who are exposed to it, as well as their loved ones. The prime goal of this research is to understand, what factors are viewed as the determinants of the perception and the attitudes of non-autistic people towards people with ASD. This study is quantitative; data was collected using an online survey on social networks. A total of 1670 respondents were surveyed, 1347 people of which passed the survey completely. Data analysis was carried out only on this part of the respondents. The sample collection was by quota; the following quota were derived: age, type of city of residence, gender, experience of conscious communication with a person with ASD. Results: four types of perception of autistic people have been derived: “Autistic people – the ones having defection of development”, “Autistic people – the ones having problems with communication and socialisation”, “Autistic people – the ones having difficulties in behaviour”, “Autistic people – the ones living in their own world”. The relation between objective knowledge and types of perception and age have been found There was no relation between types of perception and attitudes towards people with ASD found. The relation between having a child and attitudes have been found