Autism Spectrum Disorders: Prenatal Genetic Testing and Abortion Decision-Making among Taiwanese Mothers of Affected Children

Wei-Ju Chen, Shixi Zhao, Tse-Yang Huang, Oi-Man Kwok and Lei-Shih Chen
Additional contact information
Wei-Ju Chen: Psychology Department, The University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, TX 79762, USA
Shixi Zhao: Department of Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Tse-Yang Huang: Department of Special Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
Oi-Man Kwok: Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Lei-Shih Chen: Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA;

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: With the rapid growing rate of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), prenatal genetic testing (PGT) has been offered to detect various genomic disorders, including ASD, in Taiwan. However, disparities exist in this area, as there is limited research on factors associated with PGT utilization and relevant decision-making that may guide the regulations and ethical guidelines for culturally appropriate PGT services in Taiwan. This study proposed a comprehensively integrated theoretical framework for examining the intention to undergo PGT to detect ASD susceptibility genes and subsequent abortion decision-making among Taiwanese mothers of children affected by ASD. Survey data from 333 mothers of children with ASD in 236 elementary schools with special education services in Taiwan were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Approximately two-thirds of the participants (66.6%) would undergo PGT to detect ASD susceptibility genes; more than half (53.1%) would terminate the hypothetically ASD-affected pregnancy. Abortion intention was associated with age, religion, attitudes toward PGT for detecting ASD susceptibility genes, and willingness to undergo such PGT. This study explores the potential impacts of PGT on Taiwanese society, and the findings are applicable to countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture, areas with Asian immigrants, and Western countries with such PGT services and/or research available.

Keywords: abortion; autism spectrum disorders; mothers; prenatal genetic testing; structural equation modeling; Taiwan; termination of pregnancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/476/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/476/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:2:p:476-:d:307629

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().