{
  "abstract": "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.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Cognitive Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates",
    "School of Psychology, Sports Science and Wellbeing, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom",
    "Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom",
    "Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Niko Kargas"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Mirena Dimolareva"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Stamatina Tsiora"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Anum Farooq"
    },
    {
      "name": "Victoria L. Brelsford"
    },
    {
      "name": "Holly Stocks"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ella Doolan-Dransfield"
    },
    {
      "name": "Julian Free"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72fhy7jq5mm9c.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0358595",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "72fhy7jq5mm9c",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358595",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3203|Family and Disability Support Research"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Developmental neuroscience/Neurodevelopmental disorders/Autism"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Developmental psychology/Pervasive developmental disorders/Autism spectrum disorder/Autism"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Emotions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Epidemiology/Medical risk factors"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Health care/Caregivers"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Medical conditions/Neurodevelopmental disorders/Autism"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Neurology/Neurodevelopmental disorders/Autism"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups/Children"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Families/Children"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Political science/Governments/Armed forces"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Developmental psychology/Pervasive developmental disorders/Autism spectrum disorder/Autism"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Emotions"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Sociology/Education/Schools"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Sociology/Human families"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213871094",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358595&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-21",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72fhy7jq5mm9c.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0358595",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358595"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:epidemiology",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:neurology",
      "subfield": "neurology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Navigating fragmented and contingent support: A qualitative study of British Armed Forces families raising neurodivergent children",
  "title_text": "Navigating fragmented and contingent support: A qualitative study of British Armed Forces families raising neurodivergent children",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72fhy7jq5mm9c",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}