Recent studies have validated the phenomenon of autistic regression, but little is known about how regressive and congenital onsets of the disorder influence parents' thinking about autism and its etiology. Parents (N = 327) of children with autism spectrum disorders completed an online questionnaire about their children's development. Approximately half of the sample indicated that their children showed signs of autism from birth or shortly thereafter; the remaining half described their children as developing autism in the regressive fashion. Parents' beliefs about the causes of autism varied widely, but two of the most popularly cited explanations were “genetics” and “external mechanisms” (e.g., vaccinations, environmental toxins). When analyzed relative to type of autism onset, parents more often advocated genetics as the cause for autism when their children exhibited the congenital type and external mechanisms when their children presented with the regressive type.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Amorosa, H., & Noterdaeme, M. (2002). Early childhood autism: Age at onset and early regression. Zeitschrift fur Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 30(3), 211—220.
3.
Bernabei, P., & Camaioni, L. (2001). Developmental profile and regression in a child with autism. Autism, 5(3), 287—297.
4.
Booth, C.L. (1999). Beliefs about social skills among mothers of preschoolers with special needs. Early Education and Development, 10(4), 455—474.
5.
Bradstreet, B., Geier, D.A., Kartzinel, J.J., Adams, J.B., & Geier, M.R. (2003). A case-control study of mercury burden in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 8(3), 76—79.
6.
Coonrod, E.E., & Stone, W.L. (2004). Early concerns of parents of children with autistic and nonautistic disorders. Infants and Young Children, 17(3), 258—268.
7.
Danseco, E.R. (1997). Parental beliefs on childhood disability: Insights on culture, child development, and intervention. International Journal of DisabilityDevelopment and Education, 44(1), 41—52.
8.
Davidovitch, M., Glick, L., Holtzman, G., Tirosh, E., & Safir, M.P. (2000). Developmental regression in autism: Maternal perception . Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30(2), 113—119.
9.
DeGiacomo, A., & Fombonne, E. (1998). Parental recognition of developmental abnormalities in autism. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 7, 131—136.
10.
DeLong, G.R. (1999). Autism: New data suggest a new hypothesis. Neurology, 52(5), 911—917.
11.
DeStefano, F., & Chen, R.T. (2001). Autism and measles-mumps-rubella vaccination: Controversy laid to rest? CNSDrugs, 15(11), 831—837.
12.
Fombonne, E., & Chakrabarti, S. (2001). No evidence for a new variant of measles-mumps-rubella—induced autism. Pediatrics , 8(4), 991—998.
13.
Geier, D.A., & Geier, M.R. (2003a). An assessment of the impact of thimerosal on childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Pediatric Rehabilitation , 6(2), 97—102.
14.
Geier, M.R., & Geier, D.A. (2003b). Neurodevelopmental disorders after thimerosal-containing vaccines: A brief communication. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 228(6), 660—664.
15.
Goin, R.P., & Myers, B.J. (2004a). Characteristics of infantile autism: Moving toward earlier detection. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 19(1), 5—12.
16.
Goin, R.P., & Myers, B.J. (2004b, May). Parent perceptions on the congenital vs. regressive onset of autism and its relation to parental affective psychopathology . Poster session presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research, Sacramento, CA.
17.
Gosling, S.D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O. (2004). Should we trust Web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about Internet questionnaires. The American Psychologist, 59(2), 93—104.
18.
Gray, D.E. (1995). Lay conceptions of autism: Parents' explanatory models. Medical Anthropology, 16, 99—118.
19.
Harper, J., & Williams, S. (1975). Age and type of onset as critical variables in early infantile autism. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia , 5(1), 25—36.
20.
Kurita, H. (1985). Infantile autism with speech loss before the age of 30 months. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 24, 191—196.
21.
Lainhart, J.E., Ozonoff, S., Coon, H., Krasny, L., Dinh, E., Nice, J., et al. (2002). Autism, regression, and the broader autism phenotype. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 113(3), 231—237.
22.
Lingam, R., Simmons, A., Andrews, N., Miller, E., Stowe, J., & Taylor, B. (2003). Prevalence of autism and parentally reported triggers in a north east London population. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 88, 666—670.
23.
Mackintosh, V.H., Myers, B.J., & Goin-Kochel, R.P. (2005). Sources of information and support used by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. Manuscript submitted for publication.
24.
Madsen, K.M., Hviid, A., Vestergaard, M., Schendel, D., Wohlfahrt, J., Thorsen, P., et al. (2002). A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. The New England Journal of Medicine, 347(19), 1477—1482.
25.
McGillicuddy-De Lisi, A.V., & Sigel, I.E. (1995). Parental beliefs. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 3. Status and social conditions of parenting (pp. 333—358). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
26.
Newburger, E.C. (2001). Home computers and Internet use in the United States: August 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau.
27.
Parker, S.K., Schwartz, B., Todd, J., & Pickering, L.K. (2004). Thimerosal-containing vaccines and autistic spectrum disorder: A critical review of published original data . Pediatrics, 114(3), 793— 804.
28.
Reimers, T.M., Wacker, D.P., Derby, K.M., & Cooper, L.J. (1995). Relation between parental attributions and acceptability of behavioral treatments for their child's behavior problems. Behavioral Disorders, 20(3), 171—178.
29.
Singh, V.K., & Jensen, R.L. (2003). Elevated levels of measles antibodies in children with autism. PediatricNeurology, 28(4), 292— 294.
30.
Singh, V.K., Lin, S.X., Newell, E., & Nelson, C. (2002). Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism. Journal of BiomedicalScience, 9(4), 359—364.
31.
Sonuga-Barke, E.J., & Balding, J. (1993). British parents' beliefs about the causes of three forms of childhood psychological disturbance. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 21(4), 367—376.
32.
Strauss, A.L., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
33.
Taylor, B., Miller, E., Lingam, R., Andrews, N., Simmons, A., & Stowe, J. (2002). Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and bowel problems or developmental regression in children with autism: Population study . British Medical Journal, 324, 393—396.
34.
Uzgiris, I.C., & Hunt, J. (1975). Assessment in infancy: Ordinal scales of psychological development. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
35.
Watts, K., LeBlanc, N., & Daggett, J. (2003, April). How mothers respond to a diagnosis of autism in their child: Causal beliefs, perceptions of disability, and psychological well-being. Poster session presented at the biannual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.
36.
Werner, E.B., & Munson, J.A. (2001, April). Regression in autism: A description and validation of the phenomenon using parent report and home video tapes. Poster session presented at the biannual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
