This recent study, Evaluation of a pilot virtual workshop to support parents of autistic young people to learn about their children’s character strengths, is an exciting example of working in genuine partnership with parents and carers in mental health research. The research team co-designed and co-delivered a workshop focused on character strengths for parents and carers of autistic children and young people.

What did the study find?

The research explored how acceptable and useful a virtual, co-produced character strengths workshop was for parent and carers. Character strengths refer to positive traits like kindness, resilience, creativity, and courage.

The virtual workshop gave participants a chance to reflect on their own strengths, and how these could support their caregiving role. The pilot evaluation revealed high acceptability — parents wanted more — and there was clear demand for this kind of strength-based, psychologically-supported space. The authors report that participants found the session meaningful, that it was helpful to reframe their challenges, and that they valued having a jointly led format (by researchers and parents and carers).

A key reflection from the very first advisory group developing the strengths training workshop was that parents and carers “want to feel that their children are not broken, and can contribute something positive to society”. In working with families to ensure they can add strengths-based language and strengths-spotting to their everyday life, the team hope that families can create more moments of connection with their autistic young people.

The impact of parent and carer involvement

What makes this study particularly powerful is that genuine co-production is at its heart. This insider perspective helped shape the content, tone, and delivery.

One of the paper’s authors, Richard, is a parent: he co-facilitated the workshop, lent his own lived experience to the design, served on the advisory group alongside other parents and carers, and co-presented the findings. Richard’s involvement shows how parents and carers bring unique insights to research, making findings more relevant and accessible.

Developing the workshop with Dr Jiedi, for parents, and the chance to make a positive difference has been very rewarding. Being able to share this journey in the paper and in our poster talk at the European Autism Congress has, I hope, raised awareness of the brilliant work and findings being produced.                                                                                                           

– Richard, Parent Co-Researcher

I am so grateful to Richard and all our parent/carer advisory group members, and all the families of autistic young people who have supported our character strengths work to date.   

– Dr Jiedi Lei, Lead Researcher