Behavioral parent training for disruptive behaviors in school-age children with autism: Secondary outcomes of a randomized controlled trial

Children with autism often show disruptive behavior problems, which may cause significant impairment. Behavioral parent training is an effective intervention for other children with disruptive behavior, but research in children with autism is relatively scarce. We here report the secondary outcomes of a three-arm randomized controlled trial, comparing face-to-face and blended parent training to a waitlist control condition for children with autism and disruptive behavior. We previously found that face-to-face, but not blended parent training, relative to waitlist control, significantly improved children's noncompliance and irritability. Knowledge about its effects on parental functioning and other domains of children's functioning is limited. Using linear regression analyses on an intention-to-treat basis, we investigated parent training effects on a range of parenting (parental satisfaction, parental efficacy, parenting stress, and lax, overreactive and verbose parenting styles) and child outcomes (hyperactivity, emotional problems, conduct problems, peer problems, prosocial behavior, and adaptive behavior). We found that face-to-face, but not blended parent training, improved parental self-efficacy and decreased overreactive parenting relative to the waitlist condition. We found no intervention effects of either parent training format on any of the other outcomes. Overall, our findings add to the evidence for face-to-face behavioral parent training as an effective intervention for disruptive behavior in children with autism by illustrating that not only children but also parents improve. This randomized controlled trial was registered in the Dutch Trial Register (#22,042).