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

Symptom severity and posttraumatic growth in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: The moderating role of social support

“…Another critical finding is that greater social support is positively related to a higher level of PTG and would buffer the detrimental effect of children's symptom severity on parents' personal growth, indicating that parents' perception of social support should be considered when carrying out early interventions. Future early interventions need to consider more how to help parents access social support resources effectively, aiming to control children's symptom severity and improve positive experiences among parents of children with ASD (Bieleninik et al, 2017; Liu & To, 2021; Reichow et al, 2018).…”

“…Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is a positive psychological experience comprising more positive self‐views, altered perspectives on life, spiritual changes, improved relationships with others, and an increased appreciation of life, which arise when individuals encounter challenging events and struggle with event‐related painful memories (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Many studies have focused on PTG among cancer survivors (Liu et al, 2020), and the positive growth experiences of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been increasingly studied (Liu & To, 2021). Parents of children with ASD suffered from mental health problems, heavy caregiver burdens, and poor prognoses, which were associated with their suicidal ideation and behavior (Akram et al, 2019; Jahan et al, 2020; Ou et al, 2015).…”

Identity transformation of mothers with substance abuse histories during a support group

“…Existential themes, including self‐identity, personal relationships, and meaning‐making, were adopted throughout the intervention to help the mothers reinterpret their life stories. Likewise, the narrative processes that occurred throughout the intervention could be seen through three sub‐processes of identity transformation (Liu & To, 2020). First, the participants became aware of the losses in their lives and reflected on the negative impact that such stories have had on them (Pals & McAdams, 2004; Polkinghorne, 1996).…”

“…Pals and McAdams (2004) further posited that personal growth can arise from using narrative understanding to transform one's personal identity (Pals & McAdams, 2004). In the context of rehabilitation, Liu and To (2020) argued that such growth stems from constructing a narrative interpretation of how one's identity has positively transformed during the treatment process and in turn integrating this transformed identity and other newly created meanings into one's life story. Taken together, the use of both existential and narrative means may hold positive benefits for the identity transformation and personal growth of mothers with substance abuse problems.…”

“…In sum, an existential-narrative approach may help promote the reflexive reconstruction of self-narratives as a means of providing new meanings to past experiences and supporting a person to navigate unresolved issues or conflicts (Liu & To, 2020). However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this approach is still largely lacking.…”