A Systematic Review: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Parents of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Group Intervention for Parents of Children with Disabilities (Navigator ACT): An Open Feasibility Trial

“…We were able to identify significant parental improvements with regard to mindfulness (MAAS), parental experiential avoidance (PAAQ), depression (HADS-D), and anxiety (HADS-A), with large effect sizes. These findings are in line with those of several other studies that have looked at the use of ACT in supporting parents (Byrne et al, 2020;Juvin et al, 2021). The improvements we identified in our study were maintained at T3, a finding also consistent with previous research regarding the sustainable effects of ACT treatment (Kohtala et al, 2017).…”

“…Parents' learning pivotal ACT skills such as experiential acceptance, flexible and mindful attentiveness to stimuli, verbal distancing (e.g., from negative judgments of their own parenting) and value-based and contextually sensitive action-taking may have not only resulted in increased parental well-being but also in more adaptive and effective parenting practices. This, in turn, may have resulted in children becoming better adjusted, as the ACT literature has suggested (Juvin et al, 2021;Leeming & Hayes, 2016;Prevedini et al, 2020;Whittingham & Coyne, 2019).…”

“…Transdiagnostic groups offer benefits such as the ability to offer treatment programs in smaller communities and rural areas and to bring together parents within a smaller radius in urban communities. Furthermore, it was a strength to have scheduled a follow-up approximately 3-4 months after the end of the intervention, as we have few studies on the long-term maintenance of effects following ACT treatment for parents (Juvin et al, 2021).…”

“…The preliminary results are promising and point to, for example, improvements in PF, experiential avoidance, stress, anxiety, and depression. According to a recent systematic review (Juvin et al, 2021), ACT is a promising treatment for distress in parents of autistic children. However, the included studies have used relatively small sample sizes (3-33 participants).…”

REACH-ASD: a UK randomised controlled trial of a new post-diagnostic psycho-education and acceptance and commitment therapy programme against treatment-as-usual for improving the mental health and adjustment of caregivers of children recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

“…Several teams have now recognised the relevance of ACT to the distinct psychological task faced by caregivers of newly diagnosed children due to the following: (i) its emphasis on psychological acceptance (validating challenging emotions and cognitions, rather than seeking to change them) [ 29 ]; (ii) incorporation of mindfulness techniques (successful in reducing caregiver and child mental health difficulties) [ 30 , 31 ] but in a way that is more sustainable than full mindfulness interventions that have high time and training costs [ 32 ]; and (iii) a ‘core values’ focus that may help caregivers re-assert parenting values challenged by realisation of the child’s condition [ 32 , 33 ]. A recent systematic review [ 34 ] identifies 8 studies investigating the use of ACT to improve the mental health of caregivers of autistic children: one small-scale randomised controlled trial, one quasi-experimental study, and six observational studies. The RCT ( N =18; [ 35 ]) compared a four-hour ACT programme against no intervention and reported a large treatment effect on parental depression.…”