Ansley Mathews Headshot

Author: Ansley Mathews | Major: Nursing | Semester: Spring 2023

My name is Ansley Mathews and I am a senior student at the University of Arkansas on track to graduate in December of 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. In the fall of 2022, I was given the opportunity to be led by my mentor, Dr. Michele Kilmer, and work with two other nursing students to determine the effect of cultural influence on age of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. I was interested in this research project for two reasons: I love to work with children and plan to do so in the future, and I have a desire to advocate for minority groups receiving inadequate care or treatment.

In order for my group to determine cultural influences on age of ASD diagnosis, we have each focused on an aspect of the project, which includes examining cultural competency of providers, determining social determinants of health (SDOH), developing an understanding of different ASD presentations across cultures. The portion of the project that I am responsible for is determining social determinants of health across minority groups and how these SDOH may disproportionately affect these groups, leading to a delay in diagnosis for children with ASD and increasing concerns from their guardians.

For this project, many different surveys were distributed with a variety of purposes, but for my portion of the project, two were especially important: the Environmental Screening Questionnaire and the Mental Health Continuum Short Form. The Environmental Screening Questionnaire (ESQ) was distributed with the intention of determining risk factors or concerns for families related to education and employment, housing, child and family health, economics and finances, family life, and community. A higher score for this 30-item questionnaire indicates the family may face social barriers that can affect health status. The Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) was distributed to assess the emotional, psychological, and social-well being of the person taking the form. It consists of 14 questions and results in a score ranging from 0 to 70, with a higher score indicating positive-well being.

As we continuously receive responses to these surveys, I have had the responsibility of compiling results into a spreadsheet, and I will continue to do so until we have a satisfactory number of responses.

Doing this study has given me insight into social determinants of health that exist within minority families with children with autism. This will help us answer our research question regarding how these social determinants of health can lead to a delay in diagnosis for minority children. I hope to become a pediatric nurse following my graduation in December of 2023, and I believe that what I have learned during this research project, and what I will continue to learn next semester as we wrap up our study and write a thesis, will help me become a more educated and compassionate nurse, especially in regards to children with ASD and their families. I believe that during my time on this project, I have developed my critical thinking skills and am learning how to properly examine, document, and interpret data.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this research project, as well as learning under Dr. Kilmer, and I am looking forward to collecting what we have learned and interpreting our findings next semester!