Capturing the Phenomenological Perspectives of Psychological Flexibility among Parents of Children with ASD

Parenting a child with ASD causes a lot of challenges in the parent’s life that have a significant effect on the psychological health and well-being of the parents. Despite extensive research on parenting ASD children in Pakistan, there is a significant gap in understanding psychological flexibility among parents, especially in the Pakistani context. The purpose of the current study is to explore the phenomena of psychological flexibility among parents of children with ASD. Qualitative research design was used in the current study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample of 20 participants from different cities of Punjab, Pakistan. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. After data collection, the verbatims were transcribed, and data were analyzed using Barun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis procedure. As a result of thematic analysis, five main themes of Mindfulness, Acceptance, Adaptation, Executive functioning and Resilience were identified under the concept of psychological flexibility. The study highlights the importance of psychological flexibility in helping Pakistani families raise children with ASD. Institutional and government-level therapies and seminars should be organized to enhance parental psychological flexibility, enabling them to better adapt to changes in behaviours and routines relating to the needs of ASD children.