Effects of remote support courses on parental mental health and child development in autism: A randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND Sustaining the mental health of autistic children’s parents can be demanding. AIM To determine the effect of remote support courses on the mental health of parents and the development of autistic children. METHODS Parents of 140 autistic children were randomly assigned to two groups receiving a 2-week intervention: The control group received caregiver-mediated intervention (CMI); the experimental group received CMI with remote family psychological support courses (R-FPSC). The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used to measure parents’ mental health. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale and Gesell Developmental Schedules were used to evaluate children’s development. RESULTS Improved parenting stress, sense of competence, depression, and anxiety were found in both groups, but improvements in parenting stress (81.10 ± 19.76 vs 92.10 ± 19.26, P < 0.01) and sense of competence (68.83 ± 11.23 vs 63.91 ± 10.86, P < 0.01) were greater in the experimental group, although the experimental group showed no significant reduction in depression or anxiety. Children’s development did not differ significantly between the groups at follow-up; however, experimental group parents exhibited a short-term increase in training enthusiasm (12.78 ± 3.16 vs 11.57 ± 3.15, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Integrating R-FPSC with CMI may be effective in reducing parenting stress, enhancing parents’ sense of competence, and increasing parents' training enthusiasm.