2026-10-12T20:24:09Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33956824 2026-09-21T17:37:47Z category_45 category_734 category_106 category_122 portal_5 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<p>Aggregate participant characteristics.</p> Niko Kargas (719043) Mirena Dimolareva (12877885) Stamatina Tsiora (23292217) Anum Farooq (24415769) Victoria L. Brelsford (12877882) Holly Stocks (25084672) Ella Doolan-Dransfield (25084675) Julian Free (25084678) Sociology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy Mental Health rebuilt professional relationships processes shaped caregiving advocacy generated occupational access depended heavily service context characterised resilience &# 8221 knowledgeable welfare provision informal support within avoid service &# 8220 twelve parents transparent inter sustained support study examined structured interviews stable entitlement shifted responsibility serving personnel sensitive respite resisting uses repeatedly legitimised related disadvantage redistributed care qualitative study online semi often gendered navigating fragmented military welfare local knowledge informed support individual champions implementation gap geographic proximity findings identify family life experienced less emotional help emotional costs educational pathways disrupted routines critical realism contingent support contingent achievement consistently translate child regulation carried records analysis showed agency handovers 17 years <div><p>British Armed Forces families raising neurodivergent children must coordinate health, education, welfare and informal support within a service context characterised by mobility and deployment. This study examined how families understood, accessed and sustained support, and how these processes shaped caregiving and family life. Twelve parents and caregivers of children aged 3–17 years with diagnosed or suspected neurodevelopmental conditions participated in online semi-structured interviews. Guided by critical realism, data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis showed that support was experienced less as a stable entitlement than as a contingent achievement. Relocation repeatedly interrupted clinical, diagnostic and educational pathways. Parents consequently became continuity brokers who carried records, rebuilt professional relationships and repeatedly legitimised their children's needs. Military welfare and informal networks could provide meaningful practical and emotional help, but access depended heavily on local knowledge, individual champions and geographic proximity. Advocacy generated occupational, financial and emotional costs that were often gendered. Deployment further redistributed care, disrupted routines and reverberated across caregiver wellbeing, child regulation and serving personnel's work. Parents also described meaning, pride and solidarity, while resisting uses of “resilience” that shifted responsibility from systems to families. These findings identify a policy-implementation gap: commitments to avoid service-related disadvantage do not consistently translate into portable, neurodiversity-informed support. Greater continuity across postings, transparent inter-agency handovers, knowledgeable welfare provision and deployment-sensitive respite are required.</p></div> 2026-09-21T17:37:41Z Dataset Dataset 10.1371/journal.pone.0358595.t001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_p_Aggregate_participant_characteristics_p_/33956824 CC BY 4.0