Effects on parental mental health of an education and skills training program for parents of young children with autism: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To determine the impact of a parent education and behavior management intervention (PEBM) on the mental health and adjustment of parents with preschool children with autism. Method: A randomized, group-comparison design involving a parent education and counseling intervention to control for nonspecific therapist effects and a control sample was used. Two metropolitan and two rural regions were randomly allocated to intervention groups (n = 70) or control (n = 35). The parents of consecutive children with autism (2 1/2-5 years old) from the autism assessment services for the intervention regions were then randomly allocated to either a 20-week manual-based parent education and beha..