Societal Attitudes Towards Autism (SATA): Validation of the Greek Version in the General Population.
Vasiliki Zarokanellou, Alexandros Gryparis, Paraskevi Papatheodorou and 5 others
PMID 36626003WHAT IT FOUND
In a Greek community survey, participants showed moderate knowledge and positive attitudes toward autism, but high willingness for personal contact.
Women, younger people, and those with university education had more positive scores. Prior contact with autistic people did not improve attitudes.
Key findings
01The Greek version of the Societal Attitudes Towards Autism (SATA) scale demonstrated good internal reliability and acceptable construct validity, supporting its use for research in Greece.
02Participants reported moderate levels of knowledge and positive societal attitudes, but high willingness to engage in close relationships with people with autism.
03Having a relative or friend with autism was not associated with more positive attitudes or higher knowledge scores in this sample.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was heavily skewed toward women (83.1%) and highly educated individuals, which limits the generalizability of the findings to the broader Greek population. The use of snowball sampling via social media may have introduced selection bias, excluding individuals without internet access or those less active on platforms like Facebook and Viber. The study did not assess implicit attitudes, relying solely on explicit self-report measures which can be influenced by social desirability. The factor analysis revealed that the Knowledge subscale mixed items from the Societal Attitudes subscale, indicating that the Knowledge measure may need further refinement to be fully reliable.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the University of Ioannina. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that increasing casual social contact between the public and autistic individuals will automatically improve community attitudes. This study found no significant association between having a relative or friend with autism and more positive attitudes, suggesting that contact alone may not be sufficient without targeted educational components.