The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a program containing a combination of social skills training (SST) and parenting training (PT) for the enrichment of social interaction skills and reduction of parenting stress for children with highfunctioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) and their parents in Japan. Twenty-two patients with HFASD from second to fourth grade and their parents were assigned to a training group (TG) or treatment as usual (TAU) and compared. The children with HFASD and their parents who were assigned to the TG participated in the manualized program for over a period of five to six months. Subjects provided demographic and medical information and completed teacher and parent-rating scales for social competence (Social Responsiveness Scale-2: SRS-2) and parent-rating of parenting stress (Parental Stress Index: PSI) and mental health (General Health Questionnaire-28: GHQ-28). The participants exhibited some improvements pre-, middle-, and posttreatment, particularly regarding the GHQ, PSI and SRS-2, as reported by parents. However, the social skills improvement reported by teachers was not significant. At the three-month follow-up, parent-rated GHQ and PSI maintained improvement, and SRS-2 achieved the greatest improvement from the baseline rating. Although some findings indicate that a program combination of SST and PT might be useful for enhancing social skills and improving parental stress and mental health, some subscales did not show a sufficient effect. Future research should consider program contents and provide longitudinal follow-up data to test the durability of the treatment.
Background: The Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ) is a scale for evaluating a caregiver’s experiential avoidance. The Japanese version of the PAAQ (PAAQ-J) was developed by Mizusaki & Sato who highlighted the necessity to reexamine the number of the items of the PAAQ-J and its factor structure. Therefore, to appropriately evaluate the reliability and validity of PAAQ-J as formulated by Mizusaki & Sato, we conducted a survey targeting a larger-scale sample of infants and their parents. Methods: This study examines the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ-J) among 2,000 mothers of infants aged 0–3, and evaluates their scores for the PAAQ-J, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Resluts: We conducted an exploratory factor analysis, further creating a PAAQ-J comprising 12 items and three factors (α = 0.80): Inaction-Behavior (Inaction-B), Inaction-Cognition (Inaction-C), and Unwillingness, with α of 0.84, 0.72 and 0.68, respectively. As in the original edition, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis results of the two-factor models show poor goodness of fit. The test re-test reliability examination results showed that the Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was 0.49, with 95% CI between 0.44 and 0.54. The correlation coefficient (r) of PAAQ-J was 0.57, 0.32 and 0.33 with AAQ-II, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in the HADS respectively.Discussion: Thus, PAAQ-J’s validity to adequately evaluate an individual’s avoidance of experiences vis-à-vis childcare, as well as their psychological flexibility, was proven. Since the original version of the PAAQ was for 6-18-year-old children with anxiety symptoms, it is necessary to examine its reliability and validity not only for infants and toddlers but also for parents of older children and adolescents in the future.
We aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Japanese version (PAAQ-J). We considered a total of 2000 mothers with infants and toddlers aged 0–3 years and evaluated their scores on the PAAQ-J Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). We conducted an exploratory factor analysis, creating a PAAQ-J with 12 items and three factors (α = 0.80): Inaction-Behavior, Inaction-Cognition, and Unwillingness, with α of 0.84, 0.72 and 0.68, respectively. The test-retest reliability examination results showed that the interclass correlation coefficient was 0.49, with 95% CI between 0.44 and 0.54. The correlation coefficient of PAAQ-J was 0.57, 0.32, and 0.33 with AAQ-II, and HADS-depression and HADS-anxiety, respectively. PAAQ-J’s validity to adequately evaluate an individual’s avoidance of experiences regarding childcare and their psychological flexibility was proven. Since the original PAAQ was for 6–18-year-old children with anxiety symptoms, it is necessary to examine its reliability and validity not only for infants and toddlers, but also for parents of older children and adolescents in the future.
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