Autism spectrum disorders in Indigenous Australia: A comprehensive scoping review

Ben Bailey, Joanne Arciuli

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

A review of the research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living with autism spectrum disorders, their families, and their communities.

In a letter to the editor, Bennett and Hodson (2017) discussed findings from a review of research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The review, dated 18 December 2015, involved a key word search of the Google Scholar and Pubmed databases using the terms ‘indigenous’ OR ‘aboriginal’ AND ‘autism’. This search strategy identified only two relevant studies, leading Bennett and Hodson to call for researchers to direct more attention and resources toward investigating the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with ASD.

In the current study, we extended on the methods of Bennett and Hodson (2017) to include a search of the grey literature and to provide an updated review of peer-reviewed research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with ASD. A key word search was conducted using the Web of Science, Pubmed, PsycINFO, ERIC, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, ATSIHealth, and APAIS-ATSI databases. Search terms pertaining to autism (autism OR autistic OR Asperger OR ASD OR PDD) were combined with terms relating to indigeneity (indigenous OR aboriginal OR aborigine OR Torres Strait OR first nation OR first people). A manual search of the grey literature (websites and conference proceedings) was then undertaken to identify other relevant publications.

Preliminary results show an increase in publications on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with ASD, including studies on diagnosis and access to support services. Implications and opportunities to extend the research on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians with ASD will be discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019
Externally publishedYes
EventLowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference 2019: Thinking Speaking Being: First Nations Solutions for Global Change - Darwin, Australia
Duration: 18 Jun 201920 Jun 2019

Conference

ConferenceLowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference 2019
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityDarwin
Period18/06/1920/06/19

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Autism spectrum disorders in Indigenous Australia: A comprehensive scoping review'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this