Bridging Parenting Stress and Child Progress: Evaluating a Parent-Mediated Early Intervention for Autism

Parents of children newly diagnosed with autism report higher parenting stress levels than parents of typically developing children. Parent-mediated interventions include parents as interventionists in their child's intervention but often require increased parent effort and time to engage in the intervention. We investigated the influence of a parent-mediated early intervention for autistic children, the Bridge Skill Development Program, on parenting stress and child outcomes.

Thirty-eight families of autistic children completed the Parenting Stress Index-4th Edition-Short Form (PSI-4-SF) at pre- and post-intervention. We used paired-samples t tests and linear regressions to examine the effects on intervention outcomes and parenting stress on program outcomes.

Controlling for mastered pre-intervention skills, children demonstrated significant improvements in core skills from pre- to post-intervention (t(37) = 6.81, p < .001). Parents reported significant pre- to post-intervention reduction in parental distress (t(37) = - 2.53, p = .008), parent-child dysfunction (t(37) = - 4.03, p < .001), parents' perception of their child's difficult behavior (t(37) = - 1.94, p = .03), and overall parenting stress (t(37) = - 3.34, p < .001).

Results suggest that families benefitted from this parent-mediated intervention, regardless of pre-intervention parenting stress levels, and intervention participation increased child skill development without increasing parenting stress.