Abstract
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently report high levels of stress related to the process of receiving an ASD diagnosis and navigating the intervention landscape. Parent education programs offer one approach to providing families with support, information, and resources following a child’s diagnosis. Given the heterogeneity of such programs, there have been calls within the literature for increased characterization and systematic evaluation of this type of parent-focused intervention. The present study describes the structure and content of a community-based, group-format parent education program for families of children newly diagnosed with ASD. Following program participation, parents reported reductions in parenting stress, increases in knowledge and empowerment, and high levels of satisfaction. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities C00390GG and the New York State Education Department C817000. The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Jane Ann Worlock, Kristin Knapp-Ines, group facilitators from CapitalCare Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, and the many families who participated in this program.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design as well as data collection. Data analysis was performed by AM. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LLC (Introduction), CJ (Method), and AM (Results, Discussion). All authors edited and commented on several versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee of the University at Albany, State University of New York and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Data used in this study came from families who participated in a parent education program at a university-affiliated autism center. Deidentified data were analyzed retrospectively and institutional review board (IRB) approval for the use of this existing data was obtained. Because existing data were analyzed retrospectively, a waiver of informed consent was also obtained from the IRB.
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Milgramm, A., Corona, L.L., Janicki-Menzie, C. et al. Community-based Parent Education for Caregivers of Children Newly Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 1200–1210 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05025-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05025-5