Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2024; 14(12): 1892-1904
Published online Dec 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i12.1892
Effects of remote support courses on parental mental health and child development in autism: A randomized controlled trial
Jia-Hui Lu, Hua Wei, Yu Zhang, Fan Fei, Hai-Yan Huang, Qiu-Jun Dong, Jing Chen, Dong-Qin Ao, Li Chen, Ting-Yu Li, Yan Li, Ying Dai
Jia-Hui Lu, Hua Wei, Yu Zhang, Fan Fei, Hai-Yan Huang, Qiu-Jun Dong, Jing Chen, Dong-Qin Ao, Li Chen, Ting-Yu Li, Yan Li, Ying Dai, Growth, Development and Mental Health Center of Children and Adolescents, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing 401146, China
Co-corresponding authors: Yan Li and Ying Dai.
Author contributions: Li Y and Dai Y contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-corresponding authors. Lu JH and Dai Y contributed to conceptualization; Fei F contributed to data curation and project administration; Lu JH contributed to formal analysis and writing and editing; Lu JH, Huang HY, Dong QJ, Chen J and Ao DQ contributed to project administration; Wei H, Zhang Y, Chen L and Li Y contributed to collect resources; Wei H, Chen L, Li Y and Dai Y contributed to supervision; Li TY and Dai Y contributed to writing– review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Supported by The National Key R and D Program of China, No. 2023YFC3604805; The Key Scientific and Technological Projects of Guangdong Province, No. 2018B030335001; and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program, No. 202007030002.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (Approval No. 276).
Clinical trial registration statement: It was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http: //www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx, ID: ChiCTR2200064649).
Informed consent statement: The participants were informed of intervention methods of this study at the time of recruitment. Each participant voluntarily took part in this study and signed informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Upon reasonable request, the study data can be obtained from the corresponding author.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ying Dai, Doctor, Chief Physician, Growth, Development and Mental Health Center of Children and Adolescents, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Child Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, No. 136 Zhongshan Second Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 401146, China. dai@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: August 28, 2024
Revised: September 22, 2024
Accepted: October 11, 2024
Published online: December 19, 2024
Processing time: 91 Days and 2.9 Hours
Abstract
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.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Parenting stress; Parenting sense of competence; Caregiver-mediated intervention; Family psychological intervention

Core Tip: This study emphasizes the crucial impact of parental mental health on therapeutic interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Integrating remote family psychological support courses with traditional caregiver-mediated interventions (CMI) enhances parental competence and reduces stress more effectively than CMI alone. Employing a robust, single-blinded randomized controlled trial design, the findings demonstrate that remote interventions effectively support parental mental health, essential for managing ASD care. The research suggests mental health professionals incorporate remote psychological support into family interventions to expand access to crucial resources and potentially improve outcomes for both children and parents. Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of such interventions and their direct impact on ASD symptoms in children, advocating for holistic, family-centered care models in psychiatry.