Mothers’ Experiences and Challenges Raising a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Although the study of autism is burgeoning with important implications both for public health and society, there is little research exploring the experiences of raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the maternal perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of mothers of children with ASD in Greece. Nine mothers of children with ASD were recruited and engaged in semistructured interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three interconnected themes were identified in the analysis: (a) emotional burden, (b) family burden, and (c) social burden. A key finding in the themes was the sense of burden, distress, and vulnerability experienced by the mothers. The findings provide valuable understanding of the experiences of mothers raising children with ASD in one of Europe’s medium-income countries. Further, results can be used by researchers, clinicians, mental health providers, and policy makers to address the unique needs of families caring for and supporting children with ASD.

Parents’ Experience in Children’s Friendship Training Programme for Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Inquiry

“…Thematic analysis by [26] (p. 36) is employed to interpret the data collected in six different phases: (1) knowing the data, (2) generalisation of initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) naming and definition, and (6) producing the report.…”

“…It is without a doubt, that parents go through many challenges in dealing with their children with ASD [ 4 ]. Often, parents, the key caretaker of children with ASD, encounter issues in their psychological well-being (worries, anxiety, emotional exhaustion) and physical well-being (easily being hurt physically) [ 4 , 5 ]. They also experience a high level of financial and social burden [ 5 , 6 ].…”

“…Often, parents, the key caretaker of children with ASD, encounter issues in their psychological well-being (worries, anxiety, emotional exhaustion) and physical well-being (easily being hurt physically) [ 4 , 5 ]. They also experience a high level of financial and social burden [ 5 , 6 ]. Other than that, they also have concern about the quality of intervention services provided to their children [ 6 ].…”

“…Previous research (e.g., [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]) has shown that parents of ASD children from Southeast Asian communities are more likely to feel affiliate stigma and have more depressive symptoms than parents from Western/European societies. There is also evidence that stigma emerges differently in collectivist, group-based societies than in individualist cultures (e.g., [ 5 ]). In Malaysia, Yeo and Lu [ 22 ] discovered that a cultural component predicted parental stress and psychological suffering among children with ASD.…”

Challenges Caused by the COVID-19 Quarantine for Families Raising Children with Disabilities: Compatibility Between Working from Home and Childcare

“…During the COVID-19 outbreak, changes in families were observed. Parents, especially mothers, dedicated more time for childcare and less to their personal needs (Ribeiro, Janzen, Passarini & Vanzella, 2021;Papadopoulos, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 300 million people needed to participate in remote learning (Alsadoon & Turkestani, 2020).…”