Abstract
The objectives of the current study were to unfold the parental beliefs about autism and the development of an
indigenous tool measuring these etiological beliefs.The nature of the study was descriptive with a survey that
was carried out in six districts of Punjab, Pakistan. On the basis of indepth interviews from four parents and
related literature, an indignous tool, Perceived Causes of Autism Scale (PCAS) was initially developed and was
administered to 133 parents selected through a purposive sampling technique. The results revealed that parents
held six different types of beliefs about the causes of autism that included genetic, medical, environmental and
neurological, prenatal and postnatal, and causes rooted in parent and child psychological problems. The analysis
highlighted that parents rated prenatal and postnatal factors were the highest among all others. Future studies
are needed to investigate the formation of the parents’ beliefs by outlining the major factors involved.
Amna Arif, Abdul Hameed. (2018) Exploratory Factor Analysis of Perceived Causes of Autism Scale, Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Volume 16, Issue 2.
-
Views
1403 -
Downloads
154
Article Details
Volume
Issue
Type
Language
