Enabling Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders - a Randomized Controlled Trial of Parenting Programs

Summary

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are disabling and impairing conditions affecting 1% of children in Norway. ASD is hallmarked by severe social deficit and lack of independence causing reliance on supportive systems throughout life. Parents are usually the primary caretakers and support, often throughout life. Normal parenting skills are however often ineffective due to the social dysfunction of the child with ASD. This causes high stress as the demands exceed the resources and capability of the parent. The high stress is associated to increased risk for mental health problems, divorce, unemployment and reduced quality of life. High parent stress may also reduce the effect of interventions in ASD. However, although the need is great and parental follow-up is an integral part of health care for ASD children, there is a lack of evidence for such interventions.

The current project aims to evaluate a specific parent program that is in clinical use - the Incredible Years for children with ASD - compared with a standardised treatment as usual (TAU) composed of clinical parent workshops ("first aid for parents").

The aim is to evaluate parenting interventions and promote evidence-based practice in a clinical setting. The investigators will perform a randomized controlled trial and qualitative interviews to compare the effectiveness of treatment as usual (TAU) versus a manualized parent program (IY-ASLD). The study aims to investigate if the parental program may reduce parent stress and improve parental competence and self-efficacy. Secondary goals are to investigate whether the parent program may improve quality of life for the parent and the child and have an impact on long-term child functioning and service use.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Incredible Years Autism Spectrum and Language Delay Programme

Incredible Years Autism Spectrum and Language Delay Programme is a manualised group based intervention in 13 weekly 2-hour sessions. The programme targets parents of children aged 2-6 years, with autism spectrum disorder or language delay.

BEHAVIORAL

First Aid for Parents

"First Aid for Parents" is a program consisting of three full day work-shops targeting communication, interaction and daily living skills for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Helse Fonna

  collaborator OTHER

• St. Olavs Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Bergen

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  collaborator OTHER

• NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS

  collaborator OTHER

• Haukeland University Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Maj-Britt Posserud, MD, PhD · Haukeland University Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

2 Years

Max Age

6 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-01-10

Primary Completion

2028-10-30

Completion

2028-10-30

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations