Representations of Autism in Social Work Literature from 1970 to 2013

This study was conducted to fill a gap in the social work knowledge base by investigating social work content on autism and autistic persons published in peer-reviewed journals between 1970 and 2013. How social workers engage in practice is influenced by the knowledge they receive. What they know and how they know it drives practice, education, and research. This study critically examined one source of social workers’ knowledge, peer-reviewed social work journals, to assess the social work profession’s representation of autism in its scholarly literature from 1970 through 2013.

A two phase approach was used to identify and assess content used to represent autism in articles published in peer-reviewed social work literature, over a 43-year period, to answer the following research questions: 

1. What themes have been used to represent autism in the social work literature published between 1970 and 2013? 
2. What does a quantitative content analysis of the social work literature on autism published between 1970 and 2013 reveal about representations of autism in the social work literature?

Phase one findings revealed information about representations of autism related to six separate themes that included (a) explaining the nature of autism, (b) interventions to treat autism, (c) effects of autism, (d) what it means to be autistic, (e) social workers’ roles related to autism, and (f) researching autism. Phase two findings showed historical trends in the manifest and latent content related to lead author gender, lead author degree, interdisciplinary collaboration, disability model, perspective, and agenda, as well as key word frequencies. In addition, the quantitative content analysis in phase two was used to re-contextualize the findings from the qualitative content analysis conducted in phase one. Findings suggest that content in the social work literature on autism has not reflected critical practice, and has emphasized a quantitative, cure-based, deficit-based, micro-level focus on autism. Recommendations are made for using a strengths-based diversity framework to support and celebrate autistic personhood, and to further critically analyze other texts that inform social work practice.