Worried, anxious and uplifted : emotions of Chinese parents of children with autism spectrum disorder when expressing information needs

Purpose – To reveal the emotions and information needs expressed by Chinese parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an online forum, and their relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The 10,062 data were from “Yi Lin”, China’s largest online forum for ASD. Open coding identified parents’ emotions and information needs, and a chi-squared test explored the correlation. Findings – First, parents’ emotions were categorized into four themes: emotions about coping with their child’s care, emotions about the parents’ own behavior, emotions about social support with other parents and emotions about anticipating the future. Parents’ overall emotions were negative (72.47%), while the tendency of emotions varied among the four themes. Second, five information needs topics were expressed: intervention and training of ASD, parenting experiences, schooling issues, social interaction and support and future development. Different information needs topics contained different themes of emotions. Third, the tendency of emotions and expression of information needs were significantly correlated. Negative emotions had a statistically significant correlation in expression of information needs. Originality/value – This study reveals the relationship between the emotions and information needs expressed by parents of children with ASD. The ASD forum could develop emotional support modules and functions for parents and facilitate emotional communication between parents.