Autism and the family: The experience of hope in families in Northern Ontario

The current document is a paper-based thesis investigating the experience of families with a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder living in Northern Ontario. The first paper is a meta-analysis summarizing studies of parenting stress where families of children with autism were compared to another group such as families of typically developing children or those diagnosed with another disability (e.g., Down syndrome, or cerebral palsy). Researchers commonly state that parents of children with autism experience higher rates of stress and distress than parents of any other child and therefore the aim of the first paper was to quantify this relationship and answer the question "by how much". Two separate analyses were conducted, one comparing families with autism to families with a typically developing child while the second compared them to families with a child with a disability. The overall effect size found for both analyses suggests a rather large effect, implications and methodological considerations for future comparative studies were discussed. The second paper included herein is a mixed methods study addressing the relationship between parenting stress and the experience of hope. Hope is a construct developed by Snyder and colleagues that is premised on goal-directed behaviour comprised of agency and pathways thinking. As an important familial resiliency factor hope was investigated within the overarching theoretical framework of parenting stress as conceptualized by the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response (FAAR) model. Participants completed questionnaires measuring stress and hope and took part in a semi-structured interview and results highlight the importance of listening to families as despite the experience of parenting stress, parents also report having hope.