Parents of children with autism using an email group: A grounded theory study

Parents of children with autism have difficulties obtaining adequate inform ation and support to guide them in the care of their children. However, the growth of communication technologies such as email has created greater opp ortunities for accessing such resources. This article presents a grounded t heory analysis of the messages sent to an email group by parents of childre n with autism. The core category emerging from the analysis indicates that the group functioned in making sense of autism. The core category comprises four categories: searching for meaning; adjusting to changes; providing su pport and encouragement; and narrative sharing of experiences. Although ema il groups function as a social support mechanism, we suggest that this is n ot the only legitimate function: such groups may contribute towards the dev elopment of parental representations of autism.