Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Ahead of Print.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 3-session group intervention for parents who had received a diagnosis of autism for their child within the past month. The intervention group (N = 41) was compared to Treatment-as-Usual (N = 40): one meeting with a social worker after the diagnosis feedback meeting. Parental stress was evaluated in both groups within a week and then a month after the diagnosis. The findings indicate an increase in the experienced parental stress for the comparison group on all six indices, while in the intervention group there was an increase only on two indices. That is to say, the intervention reduced stress that occurred in the first month after the diagnosis. Further analyses revealed that parent satisfaction with the group intervention was the single most important variable in predicting stress reduction. We argue that parent support groups immediately after their child’s diagnosis are effective and important, and probably superior to a single post-diagnosis meeting.Plain language summaryIn this study, we looked at a program for parents whose child was recently diagnosed with autism. We compared a group of parents who went through a 3-session program with another group who had just one meeting with a social worker after getting the diagnosis. We checked how stressed these parents felt one week after the diagnosis and one month later. The results showed that the stress increased for the group with only one meeting, but for the group in the program, the stress increased only in a few areas. This means the program helped reduce stress in the first month after the diagnosis. We also found that parents who liked the group program were less stressed. This suggests that support groups for parents right after the diagnosis are helpful and important to reduce stress.