A new perspective: assessing the effectiveness of media in raising autism spectrum sidorder awareness in Los Baños, Laguna

Date

2019

Adviser

Judith M. Bernardo

Abstract

The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition which is still widely misunderstood. While a better understanding of ASD has been made in recent years, there are still many misconceptions and ambiguities surrounding ASD. In light of this, this study was performed to assess the effectiveness of media in raising awareness about the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For the study, 159 participants were randomly selected from the population of junior high school students of the University of the Philippines Rural High School (UPRHS) academic year 2018-2019. It was hypothesized that media, like a documentary, could be effective in raising the participant's awareness of ASD. In order to test this hypothesis, a tool for data collection was made: a documentary about the nature of ASD, misconceptions surrounding ASD, and insights from those living with ASD. A questionnaire was also made for use in two surveys which were conducted on the participants: one before the documentary was shown and another after the documentary was shown. The questionnaire was divided into three parts which assessed the participants' knowledge on aspects of ASD: Basic information of ASD, Common Behavior of People with ASD, and Status of ASD and People Living with ASD. The results of the surveys were then compared to one another using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test in order to assess if media (the documentary made by the researchers in the study) can be effective in raising ASD awareness. From the data collected from the surveys, it was concluded that the documentary was useful in raising ASD awareness. Since there was a statistically significant increase in the awareness of the students for all of the items in the survey based from the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, it can be said that the documentary was an effective tool in raising the awareness of the junior high school students of UPRHS. However, it was also discovered that majority of the participants generally believed in misconceptions surrounding ASD or did not know about several aspects of ASD initially. Thus, it is highly recommended that more efforts be made to raise awareness of ASD to the general public. It is also recommended that more studies be conducted to find more effective ways to raise awareness of ASD via media.

Language

English

LC Subject

Capstone

Location

University of the Philippines Rural High School

Document Type

Capstone

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