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Personal Growth Experience among Parents of Children with Autism Participating in Intervention

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Abstract

Guided by Pals’ (in: McStay (ed) Identity and story: Creating self in narrative, American Psychological Association, Washington DC, 2006) model of self-making through a narrative lens in the context of adversity, this study investigated not only the difficulties but also the personal growth that parents have experienced while participating in the interventions with their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainland China. Based on interviews with 16 purposively sampled parents, thematic analysis revealed themes concerning the parents’ acknowledgment of stressful events and their emotional reactions, meanings of their experiences constructed through causal connections, and outcomes of their perceived improvement in self-understanding, parent–child relationships, and philosophies on life. Largely consistent with this theoretical model, such findings highlight the uniqueness of the personal growth process of parents of children with ASD in China’s sociocultural context.

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Acknowledgments

The data were gathered during 2016–2017 as part of a doctoral thesis on family experiences in the early intervention process of children diagnosed with ASD in Qingdao, China. We are grateful to all participants for openly sharing their personal experiences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territory, Hong Kong

    Xiao-yu Liu & Siu-ming To

  2. Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Rm. 613, Sino Building, Sha Tin, New Territory, Hong Kong

    Xiao-yu Liu

Authors
  1. Xiao-yu Liu
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  2. Siu-ming To
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Contributions

XL designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript. ST co-work with the first author on formulating the research framework, and write part of the results.

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Correspondence to Xiao-yu Liu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The Survey and Behavioral Research Ethics Committee at the Chinese University of Hong Kong approved the study. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or the national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Liu, Xy., To, Sm. Personal Growth Experience among Parents of Children with Autism Participating in Intervention. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1883–1893 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04681-3

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