Psychological interventions targeting mental health and the mother–child relationship in autism: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Kulasinghe, Kavindri
Whittingham, Koa
Mitchell, Amy E
Boyd, Roslyn N
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2022
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

Aim: To investigate the efficacy of psychological interventions delivered to mothers of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in improving maternal mental health and the parent–child relationship. Method: Electronic databases were searched from inception to December 2021. Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychological interventions that targeted maternal mental health (primary outcome) and/or the parent–child relationship (secondary outcome), delivered to mothers of children (mean age < 60 months) with ASD. Meta-analyses of three parent mental health outcomes (stress, depressive symptomatology, and general mental health) and seven parent–child relationship outcomes (parent responsiveness, affect, directiveness, non-directiveness, child initiation, infant positive affect, and infant attentiveness) were conducted using both mean and standardized mean differences. Results: Thirty-two RCTs met the inclusion criteria (2336 participants). Six RCTs showed improved maternal mental health (Cohen's d = 0.41–1.15), with moderate certainty of evidence for improvement in parental stress. There was low and high certainty of evidence of treatment effect on parental depressive symptoms and general mental health respectively, which did not show significant treatment effects post-intervention. Seventeen RCTs showed improved parent–child relationship (d = 0.33–2.28; low certainty of evidence). Interpretation: Results demonstrated that parenting interventions promoting responsiveness had the largest positive effect on the parent–child relationship and a moderate effect on overall parenting stress; however, the studies were heterogeneous, making it difficult to identify the intervention components that were responsible for the positive treatment effects. There was no significant treatment effect for studies targeting depression or general mental health, likely due to the lack of an interventional component directly targeting mental health.

Journal Title

Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

65

Issue

3

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© 2022 The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Mac Keith Press. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Psychology

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Clinical Neurology

Pediatrics

Neurosciences & Neurology

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Kulasinghe, K; Whittingham, K; Mitchell, AE; Boyd, RN, Psychological interventions targeting mental health and the mother–child relationship in autism: Systematic review and meta-analysis, Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2022, 65 (3), pp. 329-345

Collections