Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is one of the fastest growing disabilities in Taiwan. With the wider application and availability of the next generation sequencing, it is foreseeable that Taiwanese parents with ASD will get access to more reliable diagnostic tests for detecting the genetic component of their children’s ASD. It is imperative, therefore, to investigate factors that may influence Taiwanese parents’ decision-making in regard to ASD genetic testing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of attitudes and emotions on Taiwanese parents’ intention to allow their children with ASD to undergoing autism genetic testing. Using survey instrument, we recruited 444 Taiwanese parents (N = 444) of children with ASD. A two-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to assess the influence of different kinds of attitudes and emotions on parents’ intention to allow their children to undergo autism genetic testing. Based on our findings, parents’ intention was negatively influenced by their fear and guilt while positively affected by their anxiety toward genetic testing. Moreover, parents with higher annual household income showed greater interest in testing. Parents’ favorable attitudes towards testing, however, did not show significant relationship with parents’ intention. Our findings provided support to the need of pre-test counseling and genetic education among the general public in Taiwan. To manage parents’ concerns resulting from fear, policymakers and legislators should consider enacting genetic discrimination laws in Taiwan to facilitate alleviating the fear of genetic testing for ASD and ensure proper use of ASD genetic services.
