Abstract
Although early adolescence is a challenging period for all parents, parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face additional challenges. At present, little is known about their concrete parenting behaviors during this stage of their child’s development. The main goal of this study was to explore what behaviors parents adopt and investigate how these relate to parenting dimensions previously described in the literature. In addition, we aimed to explore the feelings and cognitions of parents regarding their parenting behavior. Parents of 17 early adolescents aged 11 to 15 years with ASD were interviewed. Starting from three general parenting dimensions (warmth, parental control, and autonomy support) and two parenting dimensions of particular relevance in ASD (stimulating the development and adapting the environment), our analyses produced an integrated framework with three core dimensions: warmth, behavioral control, and stimulation. Our findings suggest that parents make strategic decisions in parenting their children with ASD: they report adapting their behaviors at many levels, although these behaviors per se are not ASD specific.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the participating families.
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This research was funded by the Research Fund KU Leuven, University of Leuven (OT/13/051).
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LVE was involved in setting up the study design, recruitment of the participants, collecting data, performing and coordinating the data analyses, interpreting the results and writing of the manuscript. LON: collaborated writing of the study KH: collaborated with the design, data analyses and writing of the study. EC and KVL: collaborated with the design, interpretation and writing of the study. IN: supervised the study—collaborated with study design, recruitment, data collection, data analyses, interpretation and writing of the study.
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The study was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, and the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the KU Leuven and has been assigned number S56502.
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All participating parents signed a written informed consent.
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van Esch, L., O’Nions, L., Hannes, K. et al. Parenting Early Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Before and After Transition to Secondary School. Adv Neurodev Disord 2, 179–189 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-018-0058-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-018-0058-4