IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v294y2022ics0277953622000314.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Embracing and rejecting the medicalization of autism in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Scavarda, Alice
  • Ariel Cascio, M.

Abstract

Medicalization is increasingly recognized as a bidirectional process, with patients and their families as agents. The paper considers the specific case of the medicalization of autism in Italy, from the point of view of parents of autistic people with different levels of support needs. Through reporting and comparing results of two independently conducted qualitative studies, this paper aims to analyze how parents embrace and resist the medicalization of autism in their everyday lives and in healthcare contexts. Both studies involved participant-observation with services that targeted autistic people and interviews with parents, professionals, and autistic people. Results show that parents of autistic people both embrace and resist medicalization. While parents (sometimes ambivalently) accept the responsibilization inherent in their engagement with interventions (a sort of “therapeutization” of life) and reject lay expertise by deferring to experts’ knowledge, they also resist the application of medical labels, language and practices in various ways in their everyday lives. Both embracing and resisting medicalization can be useful for achieving overarching social goals of being a good parent, helping their children, and pursuing respect and social harmony. Medicalization derives not only from the cultural dominance of medical discourses, which seems to incorporate resistance to medicalization stances, but also from the absence of continuity and coordination of services, particularly in the Italian context of public (but increasingly privatizing) health and welfare services.

Suggested Citation

  • Scavarda, Alice & Ariel Cascio, M., 2022. "Embracing and rejecting the medicalization of autism in Italy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:294:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000314
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622000314
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114728?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fox, N.J. & Ward, K.J. & O'Rourke, A.J., 2005. "The 'expert patient': empowerment or medical dominance? The case of weight loss, pharmaceutical drugs and the Internet," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 1299-1309, March.
    2. Valentine, Kylie, 2010. "A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 950-957, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scavarda, Alice & Scambler, Graham, 2025. "Disability stigma resistance by parents at the intersection of psychosocial and structural levels," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 376(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prior, Lindsay & Evans, Meirion R. & Prout, Hayley, 2011. "Talking about colds and flu: The lay diagnosis of two common illnesses among older British people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 922-928, September.
    2. Kuchinskaya, Olga & Parker, Lisa S., 2018. "‘Recurrent losers unite’: Online forums, evidence-based activism, and pregnancy loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 74-80.
    3. Salant, Talya & Santry, Heena P., 2006. "Internet marketing of bariatric surgery: Contemporary trends in the medicalization of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(10), pages 2445-2457, May.
    4. Stacey, Clare Louise & Henderson, Stuart & MacArthur, Kelly R. & Dohan, Daniel, 2009. "Demanding patient or demanding encounter?: A case study of a cancer clinic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 729-737, September.
    5. Menon, Alka V., 2017. "Do online reviews diminish physician authority? The case of cosmetic surgery in the U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 1-8.
    6. McDonald, Ruth & Cheraghi-Sohi, Sudeh & Sanders, Caroline & Ashcroft, Darren, 2010. "Professional status in a changing world: The case of medicines use reviews in English community pharmacy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 451-458, August.
    7. Angell, Amber M. & Solomon, Olga, 2014. "The social life of health records: Understanding families' experiences of autism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 50-57.
    8. Frank, Vibeke Asmussen & Bjerge, Bagga, 2011. "Empowerment in drug treatment: Dilemmas in implementing policy in welfare institutions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 201-208, July.
    9. Lehoux, Pascale & Daudelin, Genevieve & Demers-Payette, Olivier & Boivin, Antoine, 2009. "Fostering deliberations about health innovation: What do we want to know from publics?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2002-2009, June.
    10. Edwards, Claire & Howlett, Etaoine, 2013. "Putting knowledge to trial: ‘ADHD parents’ and the evaluation of alternative therapeutic regimes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 34-41.
    11. Lehoux, Pascale & Poland, Blake & Daudelin, Genevieve, 2006. "Focus group research and "the patient's view"," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2091-2104, October.
    12. Sakib, MD Nazmus & Zolfagharian, Mohammadali & Yazdanparast, Atefeh, 2020. "Does parasocial interaction with weight loss vloggers affect compliance? The role of vlogger characteristics, consumer readiness, and health consciousness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    13. Griffiths, Frances & Cave, Jonathan & Boardman, Felicity & Ren, Justin & Pawlikowska, Teresa & Ball, Robin & Clarke, Aileen & Cohen, Alan, 2012. "Social networks – The future for health care delivery," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2233-2241.
    14. Lupton, Deborah & Jutel, Annemarie, 2015. "‘It's like having a physician in your pocket!’ A critical analysis of self-diagnosis smartphone apps," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 128-135.
    15. Brookes-Howell, Lucy Claire, 2006. "Living without labels: The interactional management of diagnostic uncertainty in the genetic counselling clinic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3080-3091, December.
    16. Vrecko, Scott, 2015. "Everyday drug diversions: A qualitative study of the illicit exchange and non-medical use of prescription stimulants on a university campus," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 297-304.
    17. Tian, Xiaoli & Zhang, Sai, 2022. "Expert or experiential knowledge? How knowledge informs situated action in childcare practices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    18. Laurie A. Drapela & Dana Lee Baker, 2014. "Policy Awareness, Financial Hardship, and Work Impact," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(3), pages 21582440145, September.
    19. Philippe Batifoulier & John Latsis & Jacques Merchiers, 2010. "Les priorités de la prise en charge financière des soins. Une approche par la philosophie du besoin," EconomiX Working Papers 2010-2, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    20. Chandwani, Rajesh & Edacherian, Saneesh & Sud, Mukesh, 2019. "Whose Empowerment? National Digital Infrastructure and India’s Healthcare sector," IIMA Working Papers WP 2019-02-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:294:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000314. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.