Mental Health Interventions for Parent Carers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Practice Guidelines from a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) Systematic Review
1
Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA
2
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa
3
Department of Rehabilitation Counselling, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 2141, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(2), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15020341
Received: 20 December 2017 / Revised: 1 February 2018 / Accepted: 10 February 2018 / Published: 14 February 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Promotion Interventions for People with Disabilities)
Parent carers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often report increased levels of stress, depression, and anxiety. Unmet parent carer mental health needs pose a significant risk to the psychological, physical, and social well-being of the parents of the child affected by ASD and jeopardize the adaptive functioning of the family as well as the potential of the child affected by ASD. This systematic review identifies key qualities of interventions supporting the mental health of parent carers and proposes practitioner-parent carer support guidelines. A search of four databases (Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Social Science Data) was conducted to identify studies that met the following criteria: (1) an intervention was delivered to parent carers of a child with ASD under the age of 18 years; (2) the research design allowed for a comparison on outcomes across groups; and (3) outcome measures of the parent carers’ mental health were used. A total of 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. A critical interpretive synthesis approach was used to produce an integrated conceptualization of the evidence. Findings suggest practitioner guidelines to support the mental health and wellbeing of parent carers should include addressing the parent’s self-perspective taking and skill for real time problem-solving.
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Keywords:
autism; autism spectrum disorder; parent carer; mental health; stress; intervention; systematic review
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MDPI and ACS Style
Catalano, D.; Holloway, L.; Mpofu, E. Mental Health Interventions for Parent Carers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Practice Guidelines from a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 341.
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