“Our Relationship Has Matured”: Improving Parental Relationships through Specialist Peer Mentoring for Autistic University Students

Background:

The lifelong nature of autism spectrum disorders has implications for autistic people and their families, with many parents continuing to support to their children well into adulthood. Transitioning to adult roles, such as that of a university student, can be challenging for both autistic young adults and their parents. Specialist peer mentoring (SPM) has been proposed as one approach, which may be effective in mitigating the challenges of transitioning to university for autistic young adults.

Objectives:

This study aimed to explore the experiences and perceptions of parents of autistic young adults who participated in a SPM designed to support the transition to university.

Methods:

A total of 13 semi-structured interviews (11 mothers and two fathers) were completed. Parents were discussing the experiences of 12 specialist peer mentored autistic university students (average age=21.2; SD=1.94; 2 female). The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in three stages commencing with identification of meaning units, followed by thematic analysis and directed content analysis, which linked data to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health comprehensive core set for autism spectrum disorder (ICF core set for ASD).

Results:

A total of 284 meaning units were identified from the data. Five inter-related themes emerged; the mentoring relationship is a facilitator, developing skills for university, mentoring changes lives, mentoring is not a substitute for other supports and ‘university’ is an emotional rollercoaster. The mentoring relationship is a facilitator articulated the interaction within the mentor-mentee dyad, which served as the key mechanism supporting outcomes. Developing skills for university captured the emergence of autistic students study skills including improvements in planning and completing tasks. Mentoring changes lives described parents’ experience of the SPM as a transformative intervention, which resulted in improvements in the parent-child relationship. While parents valued the SPM the theme, Mentoring is not a substitute for other supports captured parents view that mentoring did not solve everything. University is an emotional rollercoaster highlighted that for parents supporting their autistic young adults was a challenging and emotional journey.

The 284 meaning units were linked with Body Function (18%), Activity and Participation (43%), Environment (31%) and Personal Factors (6%) domains within the ICF core set for ASD (2% not coded).

Conclusions:

SPM was valued by parents who attributed their improving relationship with their autistic young adult to the intervention. Linking to the ICF core set for ASD revealed that from the parents’ perspective the SPM program worked to target ‘the fit’ between participation in university and the environment for autistic young adults. This study highlights the importance of considering and developing intervention, which target aspects of the environment in improving the life outcome of autistic young adults.