Skip to main content
NCBI home page
International Journal of Developmental Disabilities logoLink to International Journal of Developmental Disabilities
. 2023 May 17;69(3):452–456. doi: 10.1080/20473869.2023.2193485

Knowledge with kindness is power! Knowledge about autism and kindness relate to better attitude towards persons with autism spectrum disorder

Jesus Alfonso D Datu a,✉
PMCID: PMC10197978  PMID: 37213589

Abstract

Prior studies have shown inconclusive evidence on how knowledge predicts attitude towards individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in diverse cultural contexts. There is also dearth of research on psychological resources that facilitate inclusive attitude towards students with ASD. This study examines the links of kindness and knowledge about autism to attitude towards ASD among Filipino high school students. An online survey with items measuring kindness and knowledge about autism as well as a vignette-based measure of attitude towards ASD was administered to participants. Results showed that knowledge about autism and kindness positively predicted attitude towards ASD when controlling for age, gender, and previous contact with students with ASD. This research suggests that integrating ASD awareness with kindness education can bolster positive attitude towards persons with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Keywords: Filipino students, kindness, inclusive attitude, knowledge about autism, special education

Introduction

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have increased tendencies to show a wide range of maladaptive behaviors, which may include but are not limited to poor planning skills (Di Sarro et al. 2022), lower emotional awareness (Huggins et al. 2021), reduced gaze behaviors (Thorup et al. 2022), and higher externalizing problems (Hastings et al. 2022, Li et al. 2020). By part, this explains why the public and typically developing individuals – such as students and adults without any special needs or disabilities–espouse negative attitude towards persons with ASD. Prior studies have identified concrete predictors of attitude towards individuals with ASD such as knowledge (Park et al. 2010, White et al. 2019) and awareness (Chu et al. 2021, Park et al. 2010, White et al. 2019) about this developmental disorder, gender, previous contact with a person with ASD (Kuzminski et al. 2019), and kindness (Datu et al. 2021). This research focuses on the links of knowledge about ASD and kindness to attitude towards individuals with ASD in typically developing Filipino high school students.

Although it is logical to argue that knowledge about knowledge results in better attitude, previous investigations have shown that there was inconclusive evidence on how knowledge facilitates attitude towards individuals with ASD. Whereas some studies demonstrated that individuals with greater knowledge tend to have a positive attitude (Au and Lau 2021, Chu et al. 2021, Kuzminski et al. 2019, Lu et al. 2020), other research showed that this knowledge did not impact attitude towards autism and other developmental disorders (Mirete et al. 2022, White et al. 2019). Because previous investigations recruited college students (White et al. 2019), teachers (Au and Lau 2021, Lu et al. 2020), and early to late adults (Kuzminski et al. 2019) – samples belonging to the early to middle adulthood phases of development who are likely to show more advanced cognitive developmental milestones–, results hold limited generalizability to younger samples such as middle and late adolescents.

Meanwhile, there is scant evidence on the role that kindness – the capacity to engage in good deeds that directly benefit other people (Otake et al. 2006) – plays in attitude towards ASD and other forms of exceptionalities among persons with typical development. There is a reason to argue that kindness may relate to better attitude towards individuals with ASD given that kinder students tend to show greater levels of connectedness to others (Cregg and Cheavens 2022) and higher satisfaction of the basic needs for relatedness (Gherghel et al. 2021). For example, Vertilo and Gibson (2014) have shown that kindness and social intelligence were associated with lower stigma towards individuals with a mental illness among undergraduate students in the United States. Datu et al. (2021) have also demonstrated that kindness was linked to lower stigma towards persons with special educational needs in undergraduate students in the Philippines. In a related study, empathic concern, but not previous knowledge and contact with persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) was associated with positive attitude towards persons with ID among undergraduate students in Spain (Mirete et al. 2022). However, the benefits of kindness in attitude persons towards ASD remains unknown.

Drawing from literature on contact hypothesis (Allport 1954, Cage and Burton 2019, Pettigrew and Tropp 2006), it is likely that typically developing individuals may show discriminatory attitude towards persons with specific forms of special needs (e.g. ASD and intellectual disabilities) when they make unfavorable conclusions on the latter’s behaviors due to any difference in their respective communication, emotional expression, and interpersonal skills. This theory underscores the importance of some conditions for facilitating positive intergroup interactions between individuals with and without ASD namely: (a) equality in status between groups regardless of pre-existing social, emotional, and behavioral differences; (b) common goals; (c) cooperation and interaction with the group being marginalized; and (d) social and institutional support. This research argues that knowledge about ASD might operate as a pathway to equality in status between students with ASD and typical development by minimizing perceived differences of academic and socioemotional skills that matter for prestige or status in a group. Meanwhile, kindness and previous contact with persons with ASD may potentially function as pathways to boost cooperation and interactions with individuals with ASD by promoting emphatic concern and sense of connectedness towards people with special needs. In other words, contact alone may not be sufficient to improve attitude towards persons with ASD. Despite the significance of simultaneously investigating the roles that knowledge and kindness in predicting attitude towards people with ASD, previous studies paid attention to the role of either knowledge about ASD (Au and Lau 2021, Chu et al. 2021, Kuzminski et al. 2019, Lu et al. 2020) or kindness (Datu et al. 2021) in understanding stigma and acceptance towards persons with diverse types of exceptionalities.

Hence, this study explores the associations of knowledge about ASD and kindness with attitude towards persons with ASD in Filipino high school students. Given that prior investigations have linked previous contact with individuals with autism to positive attitude towards individuals with ASD (Kuzminski et al. 2019, White et al. 2019), this construct was added as a covariate in this investigation. Further, as past studies (LaBelle et al. 2013, Kuzminski et al. 2019) showed gender difference in attitude towards individuals with disabilities–with female demonstrating more positive attitudes to persons with special needs–, we control for the effects of gender in this research.

The following hypotheses were tested in this study:

Hypothesis 1: Knowledge about ASD will positively predict attitude towards persons with ASD when controlling for demographic covariates (i.e. age and gender) and previous contact with individuals with ASD.

Hypothesis 2: Kindness will positively predict attitude towards persons with ASD when controlling for demographic covariates (i.e. age and gender) and previous contact with individuals with ASD.

Methods

Participants and procedures

There were 293 Filipino high school students from two public high schools in two rural cites (i.e. Lucena and Tayabas) in the Philippines who participated in this research. The participants average age was 15.05 (SD = 2.03). Majority of these students were girls (n = 202) and reported having a past actual interaction with a person with ASD (n = 159). There were no students with ASD in this study,

Prior to survey administration, the author secured approval to collect data from the Human Research Ethics Committee of Education University of Hong Kong. Then, consent forms were distributed to secondary schools and participants’ parents. With the help of class advisers or teachers, an online survey was sent to participants whose parents agreed to participate in this study. On the average, the participants completed the online survey in 15 minutes. Note that this study was part of a longitudinal project that investigated predictors of attitude towards persons with ASD and well-being in Filipino students.

Measures

Knowledge about autism

The 13-item Autism Awareness Survey (Someki et al. 2018) was used to assess the participants’ knowledge about autism. Items were rated on a 5-point scale (−2 = Strongly disagree; 2 = Strongly agree). After conducting reliability analyses, removal of 4 items was needed to improve the scale’s internal consistency coefficient to .62.

Kindness

The 3-item Kindness Scale (Otake et al. 2006) was used to assess the extent to which participants engaged in kind actions. Items were rated via a 5-point scale (1 = Not at all; 5 = A great deal). Higher scores indicate greater perceived kindness. The Cronbach’s alpha of this scale in this study was .80.

Attitude towards individuals with ASD

The vignette story approach (Harnum et al. 2007) was used to assess the participants’ openness to individuals with ASD. This vignette described ‘Jamie’, a person with symptoms of autism. Students were asked to read this vignette story and rate seven statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree; 5 = Strongly agree). The Cronbach’s alpha of this scale was 0.61.

Demographic factors

The participants were asked to report specific demographic info such as their age, and gender. To assess previous contact, an item that asked participants to indicate whether they experienced directly interacting with a person with ASD (with a response option of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’) was included in the survey.

Data analyses

Descriptive statistics, reliability, and correlational analyses were conducted. Then, after meeting prerequisites in performing regression analysis such as visual examination of QQ plots and histograms to determine whether the data were normally distributed, to univariate and multivariate normality, absence of significant outliers, and multicollinearity (i.e. variance inflation factor), hierarchical regression analysis was performed. In Step 1, age, gender, and previous contact with person with ASD were entered as predictor variables. In Step 2, knowledge about autism and kindness were entered as predictors of attitude towards ASD. All analyses were conducted using the SPSS 27v.

Results

The results of reliability, descriptive statistical, and correlational analyses between knowledge about autism, kindness, and attitude towards individuals with ASD are reported in Table 1. Results of correlational analyses demonstrated that knowledge about autism was not significantly correlated with kindness and attitude towards individuals with ASD. Ancillary analyses were also carried out to assess demographic differences in attitude towards ASD. Whereas findings of independent sample t-tests indicated that there was no significant gender difference in attitude towards ASD, t(289) = 1.28, p = .20, individuals who had actual exposure to a person with ASD (M = 3.64; SD = 0.49) had higher levels of positive attitude towards ASD that those without (M = 3.48; SD = 0.52), t(289) = 2.64, p < .01.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics, reliability, and correlational analyses between knowledge about autism, kindness, and attitude towards individuals with autism.

  r
  M SD 1 2 3
1. Knowledge about autism 2.02 4.22 (.62)    
2. Kindness 3.82 0.87 −.14* (.80)  
3. Attitude towards individuals with autism 3.57 0.51 .26*** .14* (.65)
Open in a new tab

Note: *** p < .001; * p < .05; Cronbach’s alpha coefficients are located across the diagonal.

Results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that previous contact with a person with ASD negatively predicted positive attitudes towards individuals with ASD when controlling for age, gender, knowledge about ASD, and other variables. As a lower value of contact suggests actual experience in interacting with a person with ASD, this result indicates that previous contact with a person with ASD was linked to better attitude towards individuals with ASD. Both knowledge about ASD and kindness positively predicted attitude towards individuals with ASD even after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and previous contact with a person with ASD. Altogether, these age, gender, previous contact, knowledge about ASD, and kindness accounted for 12.60% of the variance in attitude towards persons with ASD (Table 2).

Table 2.

Hierarchical regression analyses of demographic covariates, knowledge about autism, and kindness as predictors attitude towards individuals with autism.

Predictors B SE t R2 ΔR2
Step 1       .033 .023*
Age −.02 .02 −1.10    
Gender −.07 .06 −1.11    
Contact with a person with ASD −.16*** .06 −2.63    
Step 2       .126 .111***
Age −.02 .02 −1.10    
Gender −.06 .06 −0.95    
Contact with a person with ASD −.14** .06 −2.47    
Knowledge about autism .03*** .01 4.97    
Kindness .08** .03 3.02    
Open in a new tab

Note: only unstandardized coefficients are shown in the table; *** p < .001, ** p <.01, * p < .05.

Discussion and conclusions

Although prior studies have shown that either knowledge about ASD (Au and Lau 2021, Chu et al. 2021, Kuzminski et al. 2019, Lu et al. 2020) or kindness (Datu et al. 2021) matters for promoting desirable attitudes towards persons with ASD, to my knowledge, the extent to which both factors contribute to capacity to accept individuals with diverse special needs, especially in younger adolescents remains unknown. Against this backdrop, this study explored how both knowledge about ASD and kindness were associated with attitude towards persons with ASD in typically developing Filipino adolescents.

This research showed that knowledge about ASD was linked to better attitude towards persons with this exceptionality, when controlling for age, gender, and previous contact. As with other prior empirical findings (Au and Lau 2021, Chu et al. 2021, Kuzminski et al. 2019, Lu et al. 2020), this suggests that students who have more precise information on the nature and characteristics of individuals with ASD are likely to show openness to people with this developmental disorder. Consistent with the basic tenets of the contact hypothesis (Allport 1954, Cage and Burton 2019, Pettigrew and Tropp 2006), it is plausible that knowledge may facilitate sense of acceptance towards people with autism as it can bolster an opportunity for adolescents to get familiarized with the common symptoms observed in persons with this developmental disorder. This familiarity, in turn, may decrease the likelihood that typically developing students may rely on the unique behaviors of individuals with ASD – difficulties in interpersonal communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors–, when evaluating their prestige, performance, and ranking in group-based tasks.

Further, this study showed that kindness was linked to a more positive attitude towards individuals with this developmental condition. There are two reasons that might account for these findings. First, consistent with the contact hypothesis (Allport 1954, Cage and Burton 2019, Pettigrew and Tropp 2006) and prior evidence linking kindness to perceived attitude towards individuals with special needs (Datu et al. 2021), kindness may serve as a concrete strategy to bolster positive cooperation between typically developing students and individuals with ASD. Given that kindness involves a tendency to engage in actions that boost others’ welfare, it is likely that this positive disposition may potentially promote typically developing students’ desire to proactively support the social and mental health needs of individuals with ASD. Second, kindness can result in more favorable attitude towards persons with ASD by increasing empathy (Chen et al. 2021, Leppma and Young 2016), an interpersonal competence that facilitates better attitudes towards persons with a specific disability (Mirete et al. 2022). However, given that prosocial motive and empathy were not measured in this study, future research is necessary to examine how these psychological processes account for the benefits of kindness and previous contact on attitude towards persons with ASD. Nonetheless, this research uniquely contributes to inclusive education literature by exploring how both knowledge of autism and kindness jointly contribute to attitudes towards persons with ASD.

In addition, this study showed that previous contact with persons with ASD was associated with better attitudes towards individuals with such exceptionalities, confirming prior research findings (Kuzminski et al. 2019, White et al. 2019). It is possible that typically developing students who had previous encounters with individuals with ASD may show inclusive views towards persons with this developmental disorder. This result coheres with the view that direct interactions with individuals belonging to a marginalized group may reduce negative and discrimination towards them (Cage and Burton 2019, Pettigrew and Tropp 2006). However, to my knowledge, this is one of the first research to show the associations between previous contact and attitude towards persons with ASD in adolescents.

Surprisingly, knowledge about ASD was linked to lower levels of kindness. There are two possible explanations for this finding. First, greater awareness about the signs and symptoms of autism and other developmental disorders may not necessarily translate to supportive actions towards persons with ASD. Second, kinder students may not depend on knowledge about ASD to support individuals with such neurodevelopmental disorders. These insights are speculative at this point so further studies are needed to explore the complex mechanisms underscoring the associations between kindness and knowledge about autism.

However, this study should be interpreted in view of its shortcomings. As cross-sectional design was used to assess how knowledge about ASD and kindness were linked to attitude towards persons with ASD, the results could not demonstrate insights on the causal impacts of these cognitive and social factors on sense of openness to interact with people with this form of exceptionality. Experimental designs are needed to show the effects of both kindness and knowledge on attitude towards people with ASD. Also, the low reliability coefficients of knowledge about and attitude towards ASD might obscure the actual associations of these constructs, so future studies can use alternative approaches in assessing both knowledge and sense of appreciation towards persons with autism and other related developmental disorders. Further, because this study recruited Filipino high school students and no a priori power analysis was conducted to determine the most optimal sample size prior to the survey administration, results could not be generalizable to adolescents in other non-Western societies. This shortcoming can be addressed by exploring the benefits of knowledge about ASD and kindness in attitude towards persons with ASD in other adolescents in collectivist cultures such as Malaysia, Taiwan, and India.

This research has practical implications for promoting a more inclusive attitude towards individuals with ASD. Because this study showed that information about ASD matters for attitude towards persons with ASD, special education teachers and regular teachers who mainly cater for students with and without autism in inclusive school contexts can build on research-supported online resources – for example by turning to autism acceptance training video (Jones et al. 2021), and Sesame Street online resources about autism (Dickter et al. 2021) – to combat discrimination against people with this developmental disability. The use of simple activities that can offer opportunities for students with typical development to have actual or imagined interactions (Dickter and Burk 2021) with persons diagnosed with autism can also serve as another strategy to boost positive attitude towards people with autism. Beyond promoting knowledge and contact with persons diagnosed with ASD, this research undergirds the pivotal role of kindness in cultivating a sense of openness to individuals with autism and other developmental disorders.

Funding Statement

This research was partly funded by the Additional Research Fund granted to the author by The Education University of Hong Kong.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

References

  1. Allport, G. W. 1954. The nature of prejudice. University of Michigan, USA: Addison-Wesley. [Google Scholar]
  2. Au, T. C. and Lau, N. S.. 2021. Private music teachers’ knowledge of and attitudes toward students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51, 4551–4559. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cage, E. and Burton, H.. 2019. Gender differences in the first impressions of autistic adults. Autism Research, 12, 1495–1504. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chen, H., Liu, C., Cao, X., Hong, B., Huang, D. H., Liu, C. Y. and Chiou, W. K.. 2021. Effects of loving-kindness meditation on doctors’ mindfulness, empathy, and communication skills. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 4033. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chu, S. Y., Lee, J., Wong, Y. Y., Gan, C. H., Fierro, V. and Hersh, D.. 2021. Knowledge mediates attitude in autism spectrum disorders? Data from Malaysia. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 1–10. doi: 10.1080/20473869.2021.1975254 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cregg, D. R. and Cheavens, J. S.. 2022. Healing through helping: An experimental investigation of kindness, social activities, and reappraisal as well-being interventions. Journal of Positive Psychology. [Google Scholar]
  7. Datu, J. A. D., Tang, R. L. and Wu, X.. 2021. Humanity-oriented character strengths as differential predictors of stigma towards people with special educational needs. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 1–13. Advance online publication. [Google Scholar]
  8. Di Sarro, R., Di Santantonio, A., Desideri, L. and Varrucciu, N.. 2022. Profiling planning skills and cognitive flexibility of adults with autism spectrum disorders: Preliminary results from an exploratory service-based study. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 68, 651–657. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Dickter, C. L. and Burk, J. A.. 2021. The effects of contact and labeling on attitudes towards individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51, 3929–3936. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Dickter, C. L., Burk, J. A., Anthony, L. G., Robertson, H. A., Verbalis, A., Seese, S., Myrick, Y. and Anthony, B. J.. 2021. Assessment of Sesame Street online autism resources: Impacts on parental implicit and explicit attitudes toward children with autism. Autism, 25, 114–124. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Gherghel, C., Nastas, D., Hashimoto, T. and Takai, J.. 2021. The relationship between frequency of performing acts of kindness and subjective well-being: A mediation in three cultures. Current Psychology, 40, 4446–4459. [Google Scholar]
  12. Harnum, M., Duffy, J. and Ferguson, D.A.. 2007. Adults’ versus children’s perceptions of a child with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 1337–1343. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hastings, S. E., Hastings, R. P., Swales, M. A. and Hughes, J. C.. 2022. Emotional and behavioural problems of children with autism spectrum disorder attending mainstream schools. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 68, 633–640. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Huggins, C. F., Donnan, G., Cameron, I. M. and Williams, J. H.. 2021. Emotional self-awareness in autism: A meta-analysis of group differences and developmental effects. Autism, 25, 307–321. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Jones, D. R., DeBrabander, K. M. and Sasson, N. J.. 2021. Effects of autism acceptance training on explicit and implicit biases toward autism. Autism, 25, 1246–1261. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Kuzminski, R., Netto, J., Wilson, J., Falkmer, T., Chamberlain, A. and Falkmer, M.. 2019. Linking knowledge and attitudes: Determining neurotypical knowledge about and attitudes towards autism. PLoS One, 14, e0220197. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. LaBelle, S., Booth-Butterfield, M. and Rittenour, C. E.. 2013. Attitudes toward profoundly hearing impaired and deaf individuals: Links with intergroup anxiety, social dominance orientation, and contact. Western Journal of Communication, 77, 489–506. [Google Scholar]
  18. Leppma, M. and Young, M. E.. 2016. Loving‐kindness meditation and empathy: A wellness group intervention for counseling students. Journal of Counseling & Development, 94, 297–305. [Google Scholar]
  19. Li, B., Bos, M. G., Stockmann, L. and Rieffe, C.. 2020. Emotional functioning and the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in young boys with and without autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 24, 200–210. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Lu, M., Zou, Y., Chen, X., Chen, J., He, W. and Pang, F.. 2020. Knowledge, attitude and professional self-efficacy of Chinese mainstream primary school teachers regarding children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 72, 101513. [Google Scholar]
  21. Mirete, A. B., Belmonte, M. L., Mirete, L. and García-Sanz, M. P.. 2022. Predictors of attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities: Empathy for a change towards inclusion. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 68, 615–623. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Otake, K., Shimai, S., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Otsui, K. and Fredrickson, B. L.. 2006. Happy people become happier through kindness: A counting kindnesses intervention. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 361–375. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Park, M., Chitiyo, M. and Choi, Y. S.. 2010. Examining pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards children with autism in the USA. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 10, 107–114. [Google Scholar]
  24. Pettigrew, T. F. and Tropp, L. R.. 2006. A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 751–783. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Someki, F., Torii, M., Brooks, P. J., Koeda, T. and Gillespie-Lynch, K.. 2018. Stigma associated with autism among college students in Japan and the United States: An online training study. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 76, 88–98. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Thorup, E., Nyström, P., Bölte, S. and Falck-Ytter, T.. 2022. What are you looking at? Gaze following with and without target objects in ASD and typical development. Autism, 26, 1668–1680. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Vertilo, V. and Gibson, J. M.. 2014. Influence of character strengths on mental health stigma. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9, 266–275. [Google Scholar]
  28. White, D., Hillier, A., Frye, A. and Makrez, E.. 2019. College students’ knowledge and attitudes towards students on the autism spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49, 2699–2705. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from International Journal of Developmental Disabilities are provided here courtesy of The British Society of Developmental Disabilities

RESOURCES