{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45353"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/45353","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Family empowerment: the use of online parent discussion groups following diagnosis of ASD in young children","abstract":"The overarching purpose of this research study was to examine the usefulness of online discussion groups for mothers and fathers of young children (prior to the entry in kindergarten) with an autism spectrum disorder. Over a 12 week time period, parents (15 mothers and 7 fathers) participated in gender-divided online discussion groups. Three online surveys were used to determine discussion topics of importance, to identify services and supports already accessed, and to report parent satisfaction in participation. Fathers and mothers identified similar topic choices for discussion although mothers indicated sleeping and toilet training as higher priorities than fathers. Similarities and differences were identified between the parent groups in their styles of discussion postings. Fathers engaged in more lurking (viewing without posting) behavior and only mothers used emotional support statements (indicating understanding and sympathy) and esteem supportive-compliments in their discussions. New subthemes of Sharing Statements-Information, Sharing Statements-Questions, and Building Relationships through Humor emerged. Mothers found the online discussion groups more useful than fathers, but both indicated they would recommend online discussion groups such as this one. The access to new ideas, the presence of others in a shared situation, and a sense of belonging to a supportive community were reasons mothers found participation useful. Fathers noted the access to others’ perspectives and contact with others sharing the same challenges as reasons the online groups were useful. Limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed.","abstract_html":"The overarching purpose of this research study was to examine the usefulness of online discussion groups for mothers and fathers of young children (prior to the entry in kindergarten) with an autism spectrum disorder. Over a 12 week time period, parents (15 mothers and 7 fathers) participated in gender-divided online discussion groups. Three online surveys were used to determine discussion topics of importance, to identify services and supports already accessed, and to report parent satisfaction in participation. Fathers and mothers identified similar topic choices for discussion although mothers indicated sleeping and toilet training as higher priorities than fathers. Similarities and differences were identified between the parent groups in their styles of discussion postings. Fathers engaged in more lurking (viewing without posting) behavior and only mothers used emotional support statements (indicating understanding and sympathy) and esteem supportive-compliments in their discussions. New subthemes of Sharing Statements-Information, Sharing Statements-Questions, and Building Relationships through Humor emerged. Mothers found the online discussion groups more useful than fathers, but both indicated they would recommend online discussion groups such as this one. The access to new ideas, the presence of others in a shared situation, and a sense of belonging to a supportive community were reasons mothers found participation useful. Fathers noted the access to others’ perspectives and contact with others sharing the same challenges as reasons the online groups were useful. Limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Jeans, Laurie"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Special Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Santos Gilbertz, Rosa Milagros","Fowler, Susan A.","McBride, Brent A.","Hughes, Mary-Alayne"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-08-22T16:37:34Z","date_published":"2013-08-22T16:37:34Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:34Z","subjects":["autism spectrum disorder","online parent groups","preschool children","framework analysis"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2013 Laurie Marie Jeans"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45353","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Santos Gilbertz, Rosa Milagros","Fowler, Susan A.","McBride, Brent A.","Hughes, Mary-Alayne"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Jeans, Laurie"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2013-08-22T16:37:34Z","2013-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Special Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["autism spectrum disorder","online parent groups","preschool children","framework analysis"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2013 Laurie Marie Jeans"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45353"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The overarching purpose of this research study was to examine the usefulness of online discussion groups for mothers and fathers of young children (prior to the entry in kindergarten) with an autism spectrum disorder. Over a 12 week time period, parents (15 mothers and 7 fathers) participated in gender-divided online discussion groups. Three online surveys were used to determine discussion topics of importance, to identify services and supports already accessed, and to report parent satisfaction in participation. Fathers and mothers identified similar topic choices for discussion although mothers indicated sleeping and toilet training as higher priorities than fathers. Similarities and differences were identified between the parent groups in their styles of discussion postings. Fathers engaged in more lurking (viewing without posting) behavior and only mothers used emotional support statements (indicating understanding and sympathy) and esteem supportive-compliments in their discussions. New subthemes of Sharing Statements-Information, Sharing Statements-Questions, and Building Relationships through Humor emerged. Mothers found the online discussion groups more useful than fathers, but both indicated they would recommend online discussion groups such as this one. The access to new ideas, the presence of others in a shared situation, and a sense of belonging to a supportive community were reasons mothers found participation useful. Fathers noted the access to others’ perspectives and contact with others sharing the same challenges as reasons the online groups were useful. Limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-05-09T14:21:10Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 3 Jeans_Laurie.pdf: 3276190 bytes, checksum: 4b1ab5d04123c57068d9a9cd060e8fc5 (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.docx: 5375630 bytes, checksum: 00fd4e0cebb140bc1be7d4457619708e (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.pdf: 3793432 bytes, checksum: ed19301d9986b39795198a7254f54508 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T16:37:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Laurie_Jeans.pdf: 3793432 bytes, checksum: ed19301d9986b39795198a7254f54508 (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.docx: 5375630 bytes, checksum: 00fd4e0cebb140bc1be7d4457619708e (MD5) license.txt: 4061 bytes, checksum: 2eff1f150dd456c979ded67e11fc8d4e (MD5)"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Family empowerment: the use of online parent discussion groups following diagnosis of ASD in young children"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Santos Gilbertz, Rosa Milagros","Fowler, Susan A.","McBride, Brent A.","Hughes, Mary-Alayne"],"dc:creator":["Jeans, Laurie"],"dc:date":["2013-08-22T16:37:34Z","2013-08"],"dc:description":["The overarching purpose of this research study was to examine the usefulness of online discussion groups for mothers and fathers of young children (prior to the entry in kindergarten) with an autism spectrum disorder. Over a 12 week time period, parents (15 mothers and 7 fathers) participated in gender-divided online discussion groups. Three online surveys were used to determine discussion topics of importance, to identify services and supports already accessed, and to report parent satisfaction in participation. Fathers and mothers identified similar topic choices for discussion although mothers indicated sleeping and toilet training as higher priorities than fathers. Similarities and differences were identified between the parent groups in their styles of discussion postings. Fathers engaged in more lurking (viewing without posting) behavior and only mothers used emotional support statements (indicating understanding and sympathy) and esteem supportive-compliments in their discussions. New subthemes of Sharing Statements-Information, Sharing Statements-Questions, and Building Relationships through Humor emerged. Mothers found the online discussion groups more useful than fathers, but both indicated they would recommend online discussion groups such as this one. The access to new ideas, the presence of others in a shared situation, and a sense of belonging to a supportive community were reasons mothers found participation useful. Fathers noted the access to others’ perspectives and contact with others sharing the same challenges as reasons the online groups were useful. Limitations of the study and implications for research and practice are discussed.","Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2013-05-09T14:21:10Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 3 Jeans_Laurie.pdf: 3276190 bytes, checksum: 4b1ab5d04123c57068d9a9cd060e8fc5 (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.docx: 5375630 bytes, checksum: 00fd4e0cebb140bc1be7d4457619708e (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.pdf: 3793432 bytes, checksum: ed19301d9986b39795198a7254f54508 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T16:37:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Laurie_Jeans.pdf: 3793432 bytes, checksum: ed19301d9986b39795198a7254f54508 (MD5) Jeans_Laurie.docx: 5375630 bytes, checksum: 00fd4e0cebb140bc1be7d4457619708e (MD5) license.txt: 4061 bytes, checksum: 2eff1f150dd456c979ded67e11fc8d4e (MD5)"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45353"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2013 Laurie Marie Jeans"],"dc:subject":["autism spectrum disorder","online parent groups","preschool children","framework analysis"],"dc:title":["Family empowerment: the use of online parent discussion groups following diagnosis of ASD in young children"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Special Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:34Z"}