Perceived Autism Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preparedness Among Public Service Personnel: A Cross-Sectional Training Needs Assessment

Public service personnel are a primary point of contact for autistic citizens seeking public services, yet they remain largely unexamined in the Turkish literature. This cross-sectional study surveyed 115 public personnel in İzmir, Türkiye (response rate = 31.9%; mean age = 35.06 years; 68.7% male) using a researcher-developed self-report questionnaire assessing self-perceived ASD knowledge across six domains, four single-item affective and readiness indicators, and training preferences. Self-perceived knowledge was uniformly low (study-specific composite M = 1.85, SD = 0.91 on a 5-point scale), lowest for legal rights, where 78.3% rated themselves in the bottom two categories. Self-rated empathy (M = 3.42) and attitude (M = 3.34) were higher, while only 25.2% reported feeling prepared to work with autistic individuals. Contact frequency was associated with self-perceived knowledge (ρ = .52) but not with self-rated empathy or attitude. In a hierarchical regression, attitude (β = .50) and awareness of difficulties (β = .28) were independently associated with self-perceived preparedness, whereas self-perceived knowledge was not (β = .07, p = .439); because all measures were self-reported concurrently, these associations are not causal. Participants most often endorsed behavior management (72.2%) and diagnostic processes (70.4%) as priorities, preferred visual (73.9%) and applied (73.0%) methods, and favored short formats (43.5%). Findings indicate favorable self-rated attitudes alongside low self-perceived knowledge and preparedness, suggesting that practical, scenario-based elements may usefully complement informational and attitudinal components in future training.