Fathers' Experiences in Parenting Autistic Children: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT Autism can disrupt family dynamics and affect childcare. However, fathers' roles in childcare are rarely explored in the literature. The study aims to analyse paternal experiences in caring for autistic children. This is a secondary analysis conducted from qualitative data, focusing on interpreting the meanings of fathers' experiences in caring for autistic children. Participant recruitment was twofold: in‐person via a non‐governmental Brazilian organization to assist children with disabilities and remotely through social networks. The principles of inductive content analysis guided this analysis. The study analysed 11 interviews with fathers of autistic children, revealing two main themes, each comprising subthemes: (1) between traits and embraces: understanding autism and building support networks and (2) paternal experiences in caring for autistic children and their confrontations in building a future. The fathers' active participation in his autistic child's daily life was crucial in promoting communication, mitigating challenging behaviours and encouraging social interaction, laying a foundation for future studies in this area.