Sensemaking Process of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Identification of Specific Clusters of “Sense of Grip”

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent atypicalities in social communication and social interactions across different domains of life, often with restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities. A large corpus of previous research shows that parental involvement in caregiving is perceived as stressful and challenging, in many cases resulting in poorer parental quality of life. The authors present a quali-quantitative mixed method research on sensemaking process of 34 parents (16 mothers and 18 fathers) of children with ASD. The interviews were collected and analyzed according to the “Sense of Grip” (SoG) methodology. SoG indeed refers to the sensemaking processes that a person realizes to manage the relationship with diseases or disorders by organizing several degrees of flexibility, differentiation, and adaptation to the variability of experiences and contexts of life. This construct of health psychology—semiotically and clinically oriented—is based on specific narrative functions (i.e., temporal, integrative, emotional, sharing, and agentive functions). The cluster analysis procedure allowed to identify three different SoG profiles: (a) enterprising (parents who are able to construct flexible and dynamic familiar routines), (b) opposing (parents who experience the ASD disorder as a deep unacceptable crisis, hindering the rest of familiar and professional activities), and (c) condescending (parents who organize family life completely on adherence to medical prescriptions and care protocols). These profiles show interesting implications for clinical practice and support as showing specific aspects of treating, managing, and sharing children conditions within family and relational contexts of life.