Needs Assessment of Parent Training Programs for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Phenomenological Approach
type: CreativeWork
description: Parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with high stress, depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life due to the ongoing nature of care (Seltzer, Krauss, Orsmond & Vestal, 2001; Evans, 2010). To remediate the difficulties that parents of children with ASD experience, parent training programs have become an integral and necessary component in the treatment of ASD. The most common type of parent training programs is behavioral parent training, based on the principles of ABA (Najdowski & Gould, 2014). Despite its advantages, researchers have found parent involvement in behavioral parent training to be more burdensome than beneficial; for some parents the demands and expectations are a source of stress. More recently, mindfulness-based parent training has been implemented with some success in reducing the stress of this population (Cachia, Anderson & Moore, 2015). However, parents often opt out of such programs because they want to learn more applied skills to manage their child’s behaviors; these parental attitudes present a barrier for wide application of these programs. A review of the parent training literature indicates that parent programming is not sufficiently meeting the needs of parents (Cachia et al., 2015; Najdowski & Gould, 2014). To date, parent training research studies have examined either child-based outcomes or parent-based outcomes but never addressed these concerns simultaneously, despite the well-established connection between child behaviors and parent stress. Thus, there is a need to move toward more ecologically valid models of parent training programs that focus on parental and contextual factors, while targeting both child and parent outcomes. From a developmental perspective, the Bioecological Model of Human Development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005; Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) recognizes the complex, reciprocal relationship between parent and child that occurs in many contexts (e.…
abstract: Parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with high stress, depression, anxiety, and reduced quality of life due to the ongoing nature of care (Seltzer, Krauss, Orsmond & Vestal, 2001; Evans, 2010). To remediate the difficulties that parents of children with ASD experience, parent training programs have become an integral and necessary component in the treatment of ASD. The most common type of parent training programs is behavioral parent training, based on the principles of ABA (Najdowski & Gould, 2014). Despite its advantages, researchers have found parent involvement in behavioral parent training to be more burdensome than beneficial; for some parents the demands and expectations are a source of stress. More recently, mindfulness-based parent training has been implemented with some success in reducing the stress of this population (Cachia, Anderson & Moore, 2015). However, parents often opt out of such programs because they want to learn more applied skills to manage their child’s behaviors; these parental attitudes present a barrier for wide application of these programs. A review of the parent training literature indicates that parent programming is not sufficiently meeting the needs of parents (Cachia et al., 2015; Najdowski & Gould, 2014). To date, parent training research studies have examined either child-based outcomes or parent-based outcomes but never addressed these concerns simultaneously, despite the well-established connection between child behaviors and parent stress. Thus, there is a need to move toward more ecologically valid models of parent training programs that focus on parental and contextual factors, while targeting both child and parent outcomes. From a developmental perspective, the Bioecological Model of Human Development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005; Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) recognizes the complex, reciprocal relationship between parent and child that occurs in many contexts (e.…
author: Gumaer, Caitlyn Bailey
keywords: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Mindful Parenting, Parent Training, Developmental Psychology
date published: 2020-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:40:28Z
provider: Claremont Graduate University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Claremont Graduate University