"Stigma," Survival, and Intergenerational Cultural Influences: Latina Autistic Contributions Through Community-Engaged Research.
Amber M Angell, Daníella C Floríndez, Marshae D Franklin and 5 others
What looks like stigma in Latino families is a survival strategy.
A caregiver's push for her daughter to be 'normal' is fear for the child's safety, not a deficit view of autism. Autistic traits in family members get reinterpreted as 'bad behavior' across generations.
Key findings
1What appears as disability stigma in Latino families is better understood as a survival strategy: caregivers' desire for their daughters to be 'normal' reflects fear for the child's safety in a world that does not accommodate differences, not a deficit view of autism.
2Intergenerational masking: passed-down cultural understandings of acceptable behavior include masking autistic traits, and autistic traits in family members are reinterpreted as 'bad behavior' across generations, shaping how the current child's traits are understood.
3The autistic Latina collaborators' lived experience shaped the analytic lens, leading to themes the research team might not otherwise have identified.
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What it does not show
The study focused on Latino culture, so the findings may not transfer to other cultural groups, even though the authors argue the approach to culture could be transferable. Only one Spanish-fluent coder was available for Part 2, so the team relied on English translations for Spanish-language data. The sample was early-diagnosed (median 34 months), likely because of the Regional Center recruitment setting, and does not reflect national averages for girls' diagnosis age. The sample of 21 caregivers (Part 1) and 10 (Part 2) is small, and the group skews highly educated, which the authors note as a limitation. This is a single-site study in Los Angeles County; the findings describe what these particular families experienced, not a universal Latino experience.
Declared interests
Part 1 had no external funding; the authors acknowledge support from the USC Chan Division. Part 2 was funded by a USC Chan Division ReSPONs Seed Grant Award. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that Latino families stigmatize autism or resist services. The paper's central argument is the opposite: what looks like stigma is a survival strategy rooted in fear for the child's safety. This is a qualitative study of 21 caregivers in one county, not a population-level finding about all Latino families.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →