Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire (ASK-Q).
ASK-Q is a sturdy four-part survey that tracks both autism facts and stigma in one go.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new survey called the ASK-Q. It asks about autism facts and stigma.
They tested it on a large group of everyday adults. They checked if the questions hang together and give steady scores.
What they found
The survey locked into four clear chunks: diagnosis, cause, treatment, and stigma.
Numbers looked solid. The tool can now track what people know and how they judge.
How this fits with other research
LeSage et al. (1996) made an earlier one-factor quiz. ASK-Q adds stigma and splits knowledge into three parts.
Gillespie-Lynch et al. (2019) and Mazouffre et al. (2026) later used their own stigma items across cultures. They show stigma has many faces, backing ASK-Q’s choice to include it.
Yu-Lau et al. (2013), Hongo et al. (2024), and others did the same math dance on different tools. ASK-Q joins this family as the go-to for public knowledge plus stigma.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, free yardstick for training needs. Give ASK-Q before and after staff workshops or parent classes. Watch knowledge rise and stigma fall. Use the four scores to pick which topic needs more time.
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Add the 20-item ASK-Q to your next training pre-test and post-test.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
ASD knowledge deficits contribute to disparities in the timing and quality of ASD services. To address the limitations with existing measures of ASD knowledge, we developed and examined the Autism Stigma and Knowledge Questionnaire (ASK-Q), which comprehensively assesses multiple subdomains of ASD knowledge while maintaining strong psychometric support and cross-cultural utility. ASK-Q items derived from the published research are organized into four subscales: (i) diagnosis, (ii) etiology, (iii) treatment, and (iv) stigma. ASK-Q items were selected based on ratings of face, construct, and cross-cultural validity by a group of 16 international researchers. Using Diagnostic Classification Modeling we confirmed the proposed factor structure and evaluated the statistical validity of each item among a lay sample of 617 participants.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3242-x