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  • What Is the Maternal Experi...
    Sanchez, Victoria Allen

    01/2018
    Dissertation

    This study was designed to capture the essence of what it is like for a mother raising a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The research question explored was: What has the mother experienced emotionally while raising her ASD child, and what growth has she gained and shared via blog entries from those experiences? Narrative Psychology was the theoretical framework and the concept of the collective narrative was utilized to explore the relationships mothers of children with ASD experience as shared via blog entries. Eight mothers of children on the spectrum who blog their journey were chosen as subjects for this project. Bloggers were chosen based off the public availability of their material and the lack of commercial advertisements to eliminate monetary motivation. All blog entries were coded for themes addressing stress-related growth and resilience. The most prolific and meaningful codes to emerge in terms of growth and resilience were advocacy, gratitude, and a strong mother-child relationship. These themes were present for all mothers and appeared to drive their resilient qualities. Recommendations for future studies are: a similar narrative from fathers who blog and their experience, a follow up with these mothers to see how things evolved for their families over time, and possibly a narrative from those individuals with autism who can share their experience to provide a total perspective on this subject.