Parenting a young child within the autism spectrum during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

In December 2019, international news broke about the fast spread of Covid-19. Given the psychological distress that it caused, the pandemic is being considered as a traumatic stressor. This study explores how parents of 4-year-old children diagnosed with autism constructed their parenting experiences during a one-year period of the pandemic (March 2020-March 2021). Through a resilience theoretical framework, the study also explores how parents sought to thrive in this severely challenging situation. A qualitative research design was used, making use of six semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed by Thematic Analysis. Findings show that stay-at-home measures disrupted both the parents’ and their children’s routines, resulting in a severe deterioration in the children’s behaviours. However, two parents reported minor positive child developments too. The shift of learning and therapy sessions from schools and clinics into homes and a lack of social connectedness were risk factors to the mothers’ well-being. This led to participants constructing parenting as time- and energy-consuming in terms of childcare responsibilities. Their anxiety levels were determined by the social and unique family contexts, and the mothers’ and children’s individual characteristics. The majority of parents sought a number of resilient strategies as they sought to create new contexts with novel support systems to help their children and themselves. However, the interplay between the risks and protective factors with their unique contexts determined the strategies’ use and effectiveness. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.