Parent mediated interventions have the potential to positively influence the interactions and developmental outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, a range of factors relating to children, parents and caregivers, and study design may impact on outcomes and thus the generalizability of these interventions to the broader community. The objective of this review was to examine factors that may influence the feasibility, appropriateness, effectiveness, and generalizability of parent mediated interventions for children with ASD. We conducted a systematic review, yielding 41 articles. There was substantial variability in the intervention type, intensity, and study quality. Notably, 46 different inclusion/exclusion criteria were reported across studies including factors relating to children's development, access to other services, comorbidities, parental factors, and access to the intervention. Fifteen articles included examination of 45 different factors potentially associated with, or influencing, intervention outcomes including child (e.g., language skills, ASD severity, cognition) and parent (e.g., adherence and fidelity, education) factors. Although there is clear evidence for an increasingly sophisticated (e.g., systematic phased research for some interventions) and diverse (e.g., studies in geographical diverse contexts including low-resource communities) approach to research examining parent mediated interventions, there remains a need for improved study quality and measurement consistency in research, including a detailed examination of factors that may predict, moderate, and mediate intervention effectiveness for children and their parents.Lay Summary: Parent mediated interventions-in which parents adapt their own behavior or deliver interventions to help their children learn-appear to be effective for some children with autism spectrum disorder. In this review, we identified a range of child, parent, and study design factors that may influence intervention outcomes and ultimately the uptake of these approaches in the community. We suggest that research in this area could be further improved by ensuring that studies include diverse groups of children and parents, and by using study designs that help to establish not only if interventions work, but for whom they work best and why.

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Relational processing underpins many forms of human thinking. This research addressed whether relational integration in the n-term task (linear syllogisms with three and four premises) can be facilitated. We hypothesized that solving distant analogies (e.g., furnace : coal :: stomach : ______) but not near analogies (e.g., furnace : coal :: woodstove :______) would facilitate n-term performance of undergraduates (N = 120). Participants generated solutions to near analogies (near condition), to distant analogies (distant condition) while participants in the control condition completed a word rating task. Participants then completed the n-term task with items at two levels of complexity (ternary, quaternary), and a fluid intelligence test. Solving distant analogies facilitated relational integration on the more complex quaternary-relational items. It eliminated the complexity effect in the n-term task and the association between quaternary-relational reasoning and fluid intelligence.

Emerging quantitative research found self-compassion to be a unique predictor of parental stress in parents of children with ASD above other predictors. However, research on the lived experience of self-compassion in families of children with ASD is limited. Using a qualitative thematic analysis approach, nineteen mothers of children with ASD with a mean age of 39.19 years (SD = 3.56, Range = 31.00 -50.00 years) were interviewed about their lived experiences of stress and self-compassion. Themes derived from interviews include: the impact and causes of stress, benefits of self-compassion, barriers to self-compassion, and aids to self-compassion. The findings deepen our understanding of the experience of self-compassion in this population.Limitations and future directions are discussed. Keywords: Qualitative, self-compassion, parenting, mothers of children with ASD, parent stress.Autism Spectrum Disorder is characterised by persistent impairments in social interactions and communication across different contexts, as well as restricted, repetitive behaviour, activities, or interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 0.74% of children under the age of seven in Australia (Bent, Dissanayake, & Barbaro, 2015) or approximately one in 160 children more globally (Elsabbagh et al., 2012). Parents of children with ASD report higher levels of stress than parents of typically developing children, children with intellectual disabilities, children with Down Syndrome, children