Autismes et socialisations alimentaires : particularités alimentaires des enfants avec un trouble du spectre de l’autisme et ajustements parentaux pour y faire face

Abstract

This thesis aims at bringing elements for a sociological understanding of autistic children's eating particularities. The scientific literature remains limited on that subject even though eating particularities and problematic behaviours associated with autism spectrum disorders have consequences on the child's health and social life, as well as on the family circle's. Through the analysis of interviews with experts and parents, a quantitative survey, ethnographic observations and published testimonies, this research explores the strains of the building process of alimentary repertories. On a biological and psychological common basis, the autistic deviation from the standard reveals the construction and diversification of eating identities throughout aging and the different contexts in which children evolve. The dissertation shows that some phenomena, often identified as specific of the food socialization in autistic population, are partly due to distortions of the food neophobia construction – extension, intensification combination of the two type, absence or delay – and its process. Do that it is necessary to talk about neophobias in the plural. The eating particularities emphasize the eminently social dimension of children's eating individualization process. Furthermore, their understanding highlights the redefinition of parents’ roles and the social adjustments implemented to cope with them, resulting in a combination of domestic, parental and care strategies. Thus, perturbations linked with autism disorders are the opportunity to study the neophobia process from a new angle and to uncover individual, familial, societal and health stakes implied in children's food socialisation.