A Pilot of a Brief Positive Parenting Program on Children Newly Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Author: Margaret W. Bultas,Donna Halloran,Katherine J. Pierce,Stephen Edward McMillin,Debra H. Zand,Donnamarie McNamara,Taryn White
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12334
• Date: 01 December 2018

A Pilot of a Brief Positive Parenting Program on

Children Newly Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum

Disorder

DEBRA H. ZAND*

MARGARET W. BULTAS

†

STEPHEN EDWARD MCMILLIN

‡

DONNA HALLORAN*

TARYN WHITE*

DONNAMARIE MCNAMARA*

KATHERINE J. PIERCE*

Disruptive behaviors can be of comparable or greater concern to parents than the core

symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Provision of effective interventions to

address these behaviors within the first year of initial diagnosis holds great potential for

improving the child’s, parents’, and family’s functioning. We piloted a four-session, manu-

alized, positive parenting program on 21 parents of newly diagnosed children ages 2

through 12 years using a mixe d methods design. Seventy-five percent of parents completed

four sessions, with 100% reporting high levels of service satisfaction. Preliminary results

indicated clinically and statistically significant reductions in child maladaptive behav-

iors, as well as improvements in parental and family functioning. Practitioners an d par-

ents identified several potential implementation adaptations, including additional

sessions to focus on ASD education and real-time parent–child interactions. Taken as a

whole, these data suggest that a brief positive parenting intervention may be a feasible way

to improve child, parent, and family functioning during the first year of ASD diagnosis.

Findings point to the need for additional research to determine treatment efficacy and to

assist with the identification of moderators and mediators of effects.

Keywords: Positive Parenting; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Maladaptive Beha viors

Fam Proc 57:901–914, 2018

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a prevalent, life-long neurodevelopmental disor der

impacting social, communicative, and behavioral functioning (Zablotsky, Black,

Maenner, Schieve, & Blumberg, 2015). In addition to experiencing impairments associ-

ated with the core symptoms of ASD, 50–70% of children also display a range of

*Department of Pediatrics, General Academic Pediatrics, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis,

MO.

†

Saint Louis University School of Nursing, St. Louis, MO.

‡

Saint Louis University School of Social Work, St. Louis, MO.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Debra H. Zand, Department of Pediatrics,

General Academic Pediatrics, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1465 South Grand Blvd., St.

Louis, MO 63104. E-mail: dzand@slu.edu.

The authors would like to thank Saint Louis University’s President’s Research Fund for contributing

financially to the support of the execution of this pilot study. Without such generous support, we would

not have been able to complete our investigation.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

901

Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12334