Parent experiences of obtaining an autism diagnosis for their daughter: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Old boy-focused autism checklists keep missing girls—fix your screener now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Diemer et al. (2023) talked to 15 Australian parents of autistic daughters.
They asked parents to tell the story of getting the diagnosis.
The team used interpretative phenomenological analysis to find common themes.
What they found
Parents said doctors used old ideas about autism that fit boys.
This caused long waits or wrong labels for their girls.
Some parents also felt relief and pride when the diagnosis finally came.
How this fits with other research
Pollock et al. (2026) extends these findings by showing the same girls grow up.
Those women describe burnout and grief from being missed as children.
Hsieh et al. (2014) is an earlier voice.
That study already warned that autistic girls face unique pressures.
Jashar et al. (2019) seems to contradict the target.
Their survey found parents were neutral about the process.
But the difference is age.
Tenzin studied toddlers, while C et al. focused on older girls where gender bias is stronger.
Why it matters
Update your intake forms today. Add questions about masking, social exhaustion, and intense interests in people or animals. These female patterns are easy to miss if you only look for classic boy traits.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic females are often diagnosed later than males and are also more likely to be misdiagnosed with other conditions. Co-occurring conditions may also be diagnosed at the time of the assessment but their autism diagnosis is missed. The majority of research examining the parent experience of obtaining an autism diagnosis for their child has included predominantly or exclusively male children in their samples. This study examines the experiences of parents in obtaining an autism diagnosis for their daughters in Australia through interview data which allowed for an exploration of their lived experiences. Several of the parents reported positive feelings of excitement or curiosity in relation to the assessment process which are emotions that have not been reported in earlier studies. While recent research advances have improved our understanding of gender differences in autistic behaviours, the findings of this study suggest that some practitioners have obsolete knowledge which may lead to misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis in some females. Although the extent that these experiences are representative of parents in the wider community is unknown, the fact that they are still being reported in the present day suggests that a proportion of health professionals continue to practice with outdated conceptualisations of autism.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2023 · doi:10.1177/13623613221129830