Parent, child, and family outcomes following Acceptance And Commitment Therapy for parents of autistic children: A randomized controlled trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Emerging research shows that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) may improve mental health for caregivers. Parents of autistic children, adolescents, and adults ( N = 54) were randomly assigned to either complete a brief group-based ACT intervention or remain on the waitlist. Participants completed surveys immediately prior to randomization, and 3-, 7-, and 17-weeks post-randomization. The primary outcome was depression symptoms and secondary outcomes included stress, goal attainment, positive affect, ACT psychological processes, child mental health, and family functioning. Mixed effects linear models testing Group × Time interaction indicated the Treatment group ( n = 27) demonstrated greater post-intervention improvements than the Waitlist group ( n = 27) in parent depression ( p = .03, d = −0.64) and family distress ( p = .04, d = −0.57). Treatment group parents also reported greater short-term gains in positive affect ( p =< .001, d = 0.77) and personal goal attainment ( p = .007, d = 0.80), compared to the Waitlist group. Although there was no significant Group × Time interaction for other outcomes, stress ( b = −2.58, p = .01), defusion ( b = −3.78, p = .001), and experiential avoidance ( b = −4.22, p = .01) showed improvement for the Treatment group, but not the Waitlist group, at post-intervention. All Treatment group improvements were maintained at follow-up. Results suggest that a brief ACT group intervention is efficacious for improving some aspects of mental health for parents of autistic children. Lay abstract Parents of autistic children commonly experience difficulties with their own mental health. This study looked at the effects of a brief group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy program, developed for parents of autistic children, youth, and adults. ACT focuses on increasing psychological flexibility, which is the ability to be mindful and accepting of difficult thoughts and experiences, shown to be important for mental wellness. Participants included 54 parents of autistic people, ages 3–34. Parents were randomly divided into two groups: a Treatment group that received the intervention right away, and a Waitlist group that completed the program after the Treatment group completed the trial. All parents filled out questionnaires right before the program began, and at 3, 7, and 17 weeks after randomization. Compared to the group that was waiting to participate in the program, parents in the Treatment group reported greater improvements in depression and family distress, and these improvements were still present 4 months later. Parents in the Treatment group also reported short-term improvements in their positive feelings and personal goals, compared to those waiting. Results showed that ACT may help improve some aspects of mental health for parents of autistic children, but further research is recommended.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".