Pre-Post Effects of the Psychoeducational, Autism-Specific Parent Training FAUT-E

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Child Psychiatry

Background:

• Psychoeducational parent training offers an economical approach for families of children newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• The Frankfurter Autismus-Elterntraining (FAUT-E) is a manualized, autism-specific parent training program.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the pre-post effect sizes of the FAUT-E program.
• To evaluate the impact of FAUT-E on child behavior and parental measures.

Main Methods:

• Eight group sessions were conducted by two therapists for 24 parents of children with ASD.
• Child and parent outcomes were assessed at baseline (T0, T1), post-intervention (T2), and 3-month follow-up (T3).
• The Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) was used for parent-rated child behavior assessment.

Main Results:

• Children exhibited improved behavior on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) total score post-intervention (T1-T2, p = .001, ES = .73) and at follow-up (T1-T3, p = .018, ES = -.51).
• A decrease in the intensity of parent-rated problem behavior was observed at follow-up (T1-T3, p = .031, ES = -.46).
• No significant changes were found in parental measures.

Conclusions:

• The FAUT-E program demonstrated medium pre-post effects on children's behavior between T1 and T2/T3.
• These behavioral improvements were not evident between the initial measurements (T0-T1).
• FAUT-E was easily implemented and did not elevate parental stress, aligning with findings from other parent training programs for ASD.