Race influences parent report of concerns about symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.

Only 62.2% of children who screened positive completed the evaluation, and families with less maternal education were less likely to complete it. The sample was highly educated, and the majority of parents had completed college, so it may not apply to families with less formal education. The study measured parent concerns before diagnosis and cannot show that fewer ASD concerns caused delayed or missed diagnosis. Parent and child race were based on self-report or parent identification, and the sample included only White and Black parents. Black children in the sample had lower cognitive and adaptive scores and greater social affect severity than White children, so the race groups differed in ways beyond parent report. Concerns were coded from free-response answers, so the category results depend on how researchers classified parents' words.

Publication types list NIH and U.S. Government research support. Diana Robins is co-owner of M-CHAT LLC, which licenses use of the M-CHAT in electronic products. The study used the free version of the M-CHAT and reported no royalties associated with it.

Do not conclude that Black parents are less concerned about their children or that their children have milder autism. The study found fewer reported ASD-specific concerns, especially social and restricted and repetitive behavior concerns, even though Black children had more severe social affect symptoms.