Introduction: Research capturing fathers’ parenting experiences is limited in the current literature and even more so with regards to parenting a child with additional needs. Additionally, adolescent females with autism spectrum disorders without a co-occurring intellectual disability are under-represented in the evidence-base and often not recognised or understood within the education and, health and social care system. This often leads these adolescents to receive a late diagnosis or diagnosed with a mental health difficulty first; both of which impacts on their mental health further. In turn, this also impacts parents' emotional wellbeing and support needs as they attempt to get their children's needs met by the professional support systems. As fathers' voices are limited in the evidence-base regarding their parenting and mental health needs, this study therefore aimed to explore fathers’ experiences of parenting their adolescent daughters with autism spectrum disorders.
Method: A sample of eight fathers were interviewed using a semi structured interview. The data was transcribed and then analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Both individual and group analyses were conducted which led to the development of group level themes.
Results: Three superordinate themes and ten sub-ordinate themes developed to describe fathers’ experiences of parenting their adolescent daughters, and an overview of them was presented. The superordinate themes were: ‘turmoil in understanding relationship with daughters’, ‘difficulties in processing own emotional adjustments to ASD’ and feeling ‘let down by the system’.
Discussion: The key findings were presented and discussed in relation to the wider literature. This study contributes to the lack of literature on both fathers’ parenting and adolescent females with autism spectrum disorders. Strengths and limitations of the study are presented. Lastly, the implications of the study for stakeholders are outlined and areas for future research are presented.
