A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Reduce Stress Among Parents of Autistic Children

As the prevalence of autism continues to rise, identifying interventions that can ameliorate stress in parents of children with autism becomes paramount. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of behavior- and psychology-based interventions used to reduce stress in parents of autistic children and to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies. The results from 61 group design studies across 50 peer-reviewed articles and nine dissertations indicate that both intervention types had a large effect on reducing parent stress and that intervention type, dosage, and duration functioned as moderators. Further research is needed to identify additional factors that may influence the efficacy of stress-reductive interventions and to assess generalization of these findings to more diverse populations.