Subjective experiences of women who have children with autism (original) (raw)

The current thesis aims to gain an in-depth understanding of participants' experiences of having a child with autism. This research study had two main research questions; (1) how does autistic structure come to develop and (2) how do mothers experience raising a child with autism. Five individuals who have children diagnosed with autism were interviewed. Information gathered through these interviews was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Seven super-ordinate themes are emerged, which are (1) challenges during pregnancy and child birth, (2) pre-diagnostic stance of mothers about raising their child, (3) experiencing negative emotions after diagnosis, (4) efforts to compensate for their child's shortcomings, (5) idealizing their place in their child's life, (6) conflicting attributions regarding the child's father (7) projections towards others varying by social proximity. Findings of the current study are discussed according the prevailing literature.