Emotion transformation: a grounded theory for uncovering painful triggers and repairing relational connection for parents of autistic children

Emotion transformation: a grounded theory for uncovering painful triggers and repairing relational connection for parents of autistic children Anna Robinson, Ennie Yong Advances in Autism, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- It is often voiced that parents of autistic children are the expert of their child, whereas parenting programmes target them as effective mediators for change. This paper aims to explore this unchallenged heuristic to develop an understanding of both emotional and relational needs of parents through trainers’ experiences of delivering emotion-focused and autism parent training. This qualitative study used a constructivist approach of grounded theory to gain an in-depth understanding of trainers’ experiences from their encounters when delivering parent training. Six expert trainers were interviewed, and a two-phased coding of ground theory and an adapted thematic analysis was used. An overarching theme emerged: emotion transformation from painful triggers, to enhanced attunement and relational repair. Four main themes containing 13 subthemes were identified. The interaction of these themes and subthemes are presented in a three-phase process model. Phase 1: uncovering painful emotions from a shared journey contained one theme: parent painful triggers. Phase 2: uncovering interpersonal rupture cycle contained one theme: relational rupture cycle within non-synchrony of attunement. Phase 3: parent–child re...
Source: Advances in Autism - Category: Child Development Authors: Source Type: research