Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36606153›Full record

ArticleAutism in adulthood2022

Still Infantilizing Autism? An Update and Extension of Stevenson et al. (2011).

Nameera Akhtar, Janette Dinishak, Jennifer L Frymiare

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Autism in adulthood, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. The relationship between newspaper reading preferences and attitudes towards autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Social media shaping autism perception and identity.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024
    Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Nameera AkhtarDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1174-2600
Janette DinishakDepartment of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
Jennifer L FrymiareDepartment of Psychology, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3896-461X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Stevenson et al. (2011) examined photographs and language used to represent autism on chapter websites for the Autism Society of America, autism charity websites, movies, television shows, fictional books, and U.S. new stories and found that they overwhelmingly used children to represent autism. Methods: Using Stevenson et al.'s methods, we tested the hypothesis that, a decade on, these same sources would now include more representations of autistic adults. We statistically compared our findings with theirs. Results: On the chapter websites of the Autism Society of America and in fictional books, the hypothesis was supported in that there were more representations of adults (19%-20%) than in the original study (5%-9%), but there were still far more representations of children than of adults. In movies, television shows, and U.S. news stories, there were equal numbers of representations of autistic adults and autistic children. Conclusions: These findings suggest a move away from infantilizing autism in some domains, but they rely on a narrow construal of "infantilizing": the underrepresentation of autistic adults in media. However, even when autistic adults are represented, they may still be infantilized in various ways. Future research will need to examine the impact of infantilizing media on both autistic and non-autistic people, and other ways in which these representations are limited (e.g., gender and race/ethnicity).

Indexed as

autisminfantilizationmediarepresentation

Identifiers

PMID36606153
PMCPMC9645676

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.