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The Relation Between Parent Stress and Children's Communication Skills Following a Theatre-Based Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Objectives: This study evaluates the impact of a theatre-based, social skills intervention for children with ASD. The 10-session program incorporates theatrical approaches, trained typically developing peers, and established behavioral strategies with the aim of increasing children’s social functioning. A primary objective of this investigation was to examine the impact of a child-focused intervention on parental stress, and further, whether parental stress is related to their child’s functional outcomes.Methods:
Methods: Participants included 30 youth with ASD between 8 to 16 years randomly assigned to the Experimental treatment group (EXP, N = 17) and Wait-list control group (WLC, N = 13). Parent stress was measured using the Parenting Stress Index- Short Form. This version of the PSI is comprised of 36 items divided into 3 subscales: Parental Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction, and Difficult Child. It also includes a total parental stress score. Children’s adaptive behavior, including social, communication, home living, and self-care skills, was measured with the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II. Nonparametric, Independent Samples Mann-Whitney U Test was used in which the post-intervention score served as the outcome variable and group (EXP or WLC) as the main independent variable.
Results: Significant differences were observed between the EXP and the WLC groups on the PSI Parent Distress (PD) scale (p = 0.039). Significant differences were also observed between the EXP and WLC groups for the ABAS-II Communication scale (p = 0.039). Pearson correlations indicated a significant relation between parents’ post-intervention total stress (PSI Total Score) and children’s post-intervention communication skills (ABAS-II Communication), r = -.381, p = .038.
Conclusions: This study extends previous findings about the relation of parent stress to child characteristics of ASD within a novel, theatre-based intervention design. Specifically, the distress parents experienced (in their parental role) was significantly less for the EXP group parents whose children received the theatre-based social skills intervention as compared to the WLC parents. At the same time, children who participated in the intervention demonstrated a significant increase in their adaptive communication skills compared to the wait-list controls. The findings further suggest that stronger child communication skills are related to less parental overall stress. The importance of child-focused interventions for parent well-being is discussed.
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