A Cross-Cultural Comparison of a Measure of Parent Perceptions among Families of Children with Autism in Vietnam

Most current autism research focuses on Western countries, where service availability and cultural experiences differ from those of individuals living in Asian countries, where collectivistic cultural values prevail and understanding of autism is emerging. By gathering data from Vietnamese parents of autistic children (N = 339), the current measurement study examined measure variance and invariance between the English version of the "Illness Perception Questionnaire--Revised for Autism Spectrum Disorder" (IPQ-R-ASD) and a Vietnamese translation of it, at the item, scalar, and factor levels. Results indicated measurement variance for only three of 37 items and highlighted different perceptions of autism between Vietnamese and North American parents, based on responses to the IPQ-R-ASD. Responses indicated that Vietnamese parents may have a different interpretation of the questions. Seven factors emerged on both the Vietnamese and English instruments, but items loaded differently, and a distinct factor emerged on the Vietnamese version. In sum, the current findings suggest that the IPQ-R-ASD can be useful for better understanding Vietnamese parents' perceptions of their children's autism, but the interpretation is somewhat different than on the English version, highlighting the importance of cross-cultural considerations in the study of autism in Western versus Eastern cultures.