Parent mentors are parents of children with developmental disabilities who are also counselors for parents with similar children. This study examined how mentors themselves perceived their parenting experiences in their life. Fifty-two parent mentors（51 had children who had been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum disorders） participated in the survey. Mentors answered free-form items on a questionnaire about their positive and negative experiences along with their reasons for such responses. As a result, various categorical items, both positive and negative, emerged regarding the parents’mentor activities. In addition, it was shown that an experience may be evaluated as both positive and negative, depending on the listener, even for items in the same category. There were four factors that influenced the narrative of the experience:［sympathy from the listener］［interaction with the listener］［feeling of achievement］［resistance to narration］. We discuss the meaning of parent mentors talking about their experiences and their support for mentoring activities.

The difficulties and challenges faced by spectrum disorders are well known. However, there are no effective instruments to assess the problems of workers with autism. This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Autism Spectrum Disorder（ASD） Related Support Needs Scale（Takahashi, 2012） among workers. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the responses made by 842 workers（F ＝426, M ＝416） identified a one-factor structure, which was named, “worker’s ASD related support needs.” Moreover, this subscale had adequate reliability. Furthermore, there were significant correlations between worker’s ASD related support needs and autism spectrum tendency（AQ）, psychological well-being（K10）, and loneliness（UCLA Loneliness）, indicative of the validity of the scale. It is concluded that the ASD Related Support Needs Scale is applicable for assessing ASD-related support needs of workers.