Immediate changes after an immersive autism-awareness session for mothers and female caregivers in UAE primary care: A one-group pre-post study

BACKGROUND: Autism-related stigma can undermine inclusion, family well-being, and support-seeking. Immersive community education may support perspective taking, but evidence from non-student samples is limited. METHOD: This preliminary one-group pre-post study evaluated a standardized 25-30-min immersive autism-awareness session at four primary health-care centers in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Mothers and female primary caregivers without a child with an autism diagnosis (N = 101) completed baseline measures, a first-person simulation of selected sensory and social challenges, guided debriefing, myth-correction education, and immediate post-session measures. Participants with prior formal autism education or training were excluded. Outcomes were measured using the Social Attitudes, Knowledge, and Personal Distance subscales of the Societal Attitudes Towards Autism scale and the Perspective Taking subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. RESULTS: Immediate post-session scores were higher for social attitudes, knowledge, willingness to interact, and perspective taking (all paired-samples p values < .001). Social attitudes increased from 37.7 (SD = 5.6) to 48.3 (SD = 5.2), knowledge from 14.9 (SD = 2.1) to 17.3 (SD = 1.8), personal distance from 14.5 (SD = 2.9) to 17.6 (SD = 2.5), and perspective taking from 22.2 (SD = 3.4) to 28.0 (SD = 3.0). CONCLUSIONS: The multicomponent session was associated with immediate favorable changes, but the design does not establish causal efficacy, durability, or an effect of virtual reality alone. Controlled studies with follow-up and behavioral outcomes are needed.