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Couples’ Experiences of Parenting a Child After an Autism Diagnosis: A Qualitative Study

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Abstract

After a child is diagnosed with autism, parents’ relationships are impacted as they reorganize their daily lives to support their child’s specific needs. A better understanding of parenting couples’ adaptation is needed to accompany them during this period. This qualitative study explored couples’ experiences after their child’s autism diagnosis. An inductive thematic analysis among ten couple interviews (N = 20) revealed three key themes: emotional experiences, external support, and adaptation. Overall, the quality of couples’ relationships before having a child influenced their relationship after the diagnosis. In general, parents presented complementary coparenting roles, while different opinions about how to raise the child strained their relationship. Helping parents adapt to a diagnosis together could prove to be important for future interventions and research.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all parents who participated in this research project. This study is part of a mixed-methods doctoral dissertation that received funding of 2500€ from the Fondation Mustela.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Paris, LPPS, F-92100, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    Naomi Downes, Jérôme Lichtlé, Kristopher Lamore & Emilie Cappe

  2. Service de Psychiatrie Infanto-Juvénile, Centre Hospitalier de Versailles, 78150, Le Chesnay, France

    Marie-Joëlle Orêve

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  1. Naomi Downes
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  4. Marie-Joëlle Orêve
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Contributions

ND: the principal investigator of the study, recruited participants, collected data, participated in writing and proofreading the article. JL and KL participated in data processing and analysis. M-JO helped recruit participants. EC participated in data analysis and proofreading the article.

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Correspondence to Emilie Cappe.

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Downes, N., Lichtlé, J., Lamore, K. et al. Couples’ Experiences of Parenting a Child After an Autism Diagnosis: A Qualitative Study. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 2697–2710 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04744-5

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