Maternal meaning-making under uncertainty in Xiaohongshu autism-related narratives

Background: Parenting an autistic child can involve uncertainty about educational pathways, family responsibilities, and personal continuity. Objective: This study examines how self-identified Chinese mothers of autistic children negotiate these concerns through serial Xiaohongshu narratives and associated comments. Methods: This interpretive qualitative analysis combined meaning-making theory with narrative and positioning perspectives. The corpus comprised 416 posts from seven maternal accounts and 6,826 first-level comments collected manually from Xiaohongshu. The posts and comments were published between March 2024 and December 2025. Reflexive thematic interpretation considered narrative episodes, within-account sequences, and responses attached to posts. Results: Seven connected themes concerned recurrent disruption of developmental futures; love moralized as debt and intensive action; oscillation between collapse, hope, and provisional acceptance; redefinition of progress through relational micro-events; peer recognition and experiential expertise; a contested comment ecology that validated, disciplined, stigmatized, or commercialized mothers; and reclamation of a self beyond caregiving. Conclusion: Meaning-making emerged as a continuing negotiation of anticipated futures, maternal responsibility, and personal identity, shaped by relationships within and beyond the family. These findings may inform further research into caregiver support, the moral expectations associated with care, and the quality of guidance circulating in online communities.