Focus on stigma for second paper published from Somali autism project

7 March 2017

A paper focusing on the stigma experienced by Bristol Somali families raising a child with autism has been published in the journal Ethnicity and Health. This paper is based on research from the CLAHRC West project working with the Bristol Somali community to improve outcomes for children with autism.

Stigma means that people were viewed in a negative light because of their child’s condition. They experienced prejudice by others in their community who have no understanding of autism. The family were blamed for their child’s behaviour. The paper is called You are labelled by your children’s disability’ – A community-based, participatory study of stigma among Somali parents of children with autism living in the United Kingdom.

The paper describes the following findings:

  1. Somali parents of children with autism living in the UK experienced labelling, stereotyping, separation and emotional responses related to stigma. This was associated with a lack of awareness of autism as a condition, little Somali vocabulary related to autism, and widespread prejudice against mental illness and ‘invisible’ disabilities
  2. While other ethnic groups report experiences of stigma in relation to raising a child with autism, enacted and felt stigma may be particularly harmful in the migrant Somali community, which bears a disproportionate burden of severe autism
  3. Raising the awareness of autism in Somali migrant communities and how it affects children and their families must be the cornerstone of any strategy to reduce stigma

This is the second paper published from this project. The first paper, “It was like walking without knowing where I was going”: A qualitative study of autism in a UK Somali migrant community, which summarised our findings of the research we conducted with members of the Somali community who were raising a child with autism.