The Level of knowledge of Nursing Students at Jazan University about Autism Spectrum Disorder and their Attitudes Toward it

Abstract

The aim of the current research is to identify the level of knowledge of nursing students at Jazan University about autism spectrum disorder and their attitudes towards it. This research followed the descriptive analytical method. The research population consisted of nursing students at the Jazan University. A random sample of (408) male and female students was selected from the research population. In this study, the researcher used the Attitudes towards Autism Spectrum Disorder Scale, a measure of the level of knowledge of autism disorder. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-25) to calculate one sample t-test, independent samples t-test, Mann-Whitney test for independent samples, Kruska-Wales test, Scheffe test, analysis of variance, and linear regression analysis. The results indicated that a low level of knowledge of autism spectrum disorder among nursing students, and found negative attitudes among nursing students at Jazan University towards autism spectrum disorder, and negative attitudes among male and female nursing students at Jazan University towards autism spectrum disorder. The result found a statistically significant differences in the level of knowledge of autism spectrum disorder due to the variables of gender, age and school year, and found statistically significant differences in attitudes towards autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is attributed to the variables of gender and age, and there are no statistically significant differences in the trend towards autism spectrum disorder due to the school year variable. The results also showed that the level of knowledge of autism spectrum disorder contributes to predicting the attitudes of nursing students towards autism spectrum disorder. Based on the results, there are a set of recommendations.