Asian American Parents' Experiences of Raising Children with Autism: Multicultural Family Perspective

This article describes the experiences of Mandarin-speaking immigrant parents - an understudied population - raising a child with autism in the United States. Using purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four sets of parents and two mothers of children with autism. The interviews were transcribed and translated verbatim and analyzed using content analysis. Three main themes regarding parents' experiences were derived from the data: immigration and cultural accommodation; impact of autism and cognitive response; and outlook for the future. Implications for developing cultural competency to serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations were discussed. It is suggested that more cultural studies involving participants of diverse backgrounds should be conducted in further studies.