Embracing autism in Canadian rural communities

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of Canadian parents living in rural areas who were parenting a child with autism. DESIGN: A phenomenological design described by van Manen was applied to guide this study. SETTING: This study took place in rural communities of Western Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 26 families parenting a child with autism in rural communities. Participants ranged in age from 26 to 50 years old and lived an average of 197 kilometres away from an urban city. INTERVENTIONS: Parents of children with autism took part in audio-taped, in-depth interviews. A total of 26 open-ended interviews were completed over four months with an average of 83 minutes per interview. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All interviews and field notes were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using van Manen's selective highlighting approach. RESULTS: When describing the characteristics of living rurally while parenting a child with autism, parents reported that the rural community had (i) less of everything, (ii) safety and familiarity, and (iii) a family of support. Parents believed that although there were disadvantages to living in a rural community, parents felt isolated in terms of services but not in terms of the support received by the community. CONCLUSION: The results of this study add to our knowledge of parenting experiences with attention to the rural experience and furthermore, recommendations for nurses and health care professionals were provided.