Emotional Experience and Perception of Immigrant Families through Their Diagnosis Trajectory and Anticipation for the Future

Background: Immigrant families having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face multiple challenges associated not only with their diagnosis, but also with cultural differences (e.g., in communication, values, perceived needs; Dyches, Wilder, Sudweeks, Obiakor & Algozzine, 2004; Millau, Rivard & Mello, 2018). Literature indicates that challenges encountered by theses families are mostly related to accessing services, joining services and poor quality of life (Mandell & Novak 2005; Millau, Rivard & Mello, 2018; Roth 2016). However, little information exists about emotional experience and perceptions of immigrant families having a child with ASD during their diagnosis trajectory.

Objectives: The present study aims to document the subjective experience of immigrant families in getting access to an ASD diagnosis for their child, in the area of Montréal (Québec, Canada).

Methods: Twenty-four families having a child with an ASD diagnosis completed a socio-demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire evaluating their trajectory. They also participated in semi-structured interviews in which they talked about their experience and perception through their trajectory in the health services to obtain a diagnosis for their child.

Results: This poster will present results from semi-structured interviews documenting families emotional experience and perception relating to the diagnosis process, relating to their child and the progress achieved, their apprehension for the future and the presence of social support and family members when they arrived in the province of Quebec.

Conclusions: These results help us to better understand the particularities experienced by immigrant families and gives us pathways for improvement to adapt the type of support offered to immigrant families and to better accompany them in the critical periods of their trajectory.