Psychological interventions targeting mental health and the mother-child relationship in autism: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Researchers reviewed 32 studies involving over 2,300 mothers of young autistic children. They found that certain parenting programs can help reduce stress in mothers and improve the parent-child relationship. Programs that taught mothers to be more responsive to their children worked best. However, these programs didn't help much with depression or overall mental health, possibly because they didn't directly target these issues.

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined 32 randomized controlled trials involving 2,336 mothers of young children with autism spectrum disorder. The study evaluated psychological interventions targeting maternal mental health and parent-child relationships. Results showed moderate certainty evidence for improvement in parental stress (Cohen's d = 0.41-1.15), but no significant effects on maternal depression or general mental health. Seventeen trials demonstrated improvements in parent-child relationships (d = 0.33-2.28), with parenting interventions promoting responsiveness showing the largest positive effects.

However, study heterogeneity made it difficult to identify specific intervention components responsible for positive outcomes. The lack of direct mental health targeting likely explained limited effects on depression and general mental health.

Parenting interventions focusing on responsiveness skills can effectively reduce maternal stress and improve parent-child relationships. However, mothers experiencing depression or broader mental health concerns may require interventions with specific mental health components rather than parenting-focused approaches alone.

Study heterogeneity made it difficult to identify specific intervention components responsible for positive effects. Limited direct targeting of mental health conditions may have contributed to lack of effects on depression and general mental health outcomes.

To investigate the efficacy of psychological interventions delivered to mothers of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in improving maternal mental health and the parent-child relationship. Electronic databases were searched from inception to December 2021. Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychological interventions that targeted maternal mental health (primary outcome) and/or the parent-child relationship (secondary outcome), delivered to mothers of children (mean age < 60 months) with ASD. Meta-analyses of three parent mental health outcomes (stress, depressive symptomatology, and general mental health) and seven parent-child relationship outcomes (parent responsiveness, affect, directiveness, non-directiveness, child initiation, infant positive affect, and infant attentiveness) were conducted using both mean and standardized mean differences.

Thirty-two RCTs met the inclusion criteria (2336 participants). Six RCTs showed improved maternal mental health (Cohen's d = 0.41-1.15), with moderate certainty of evidence for improvement in parental stress. There was low and high certainty of evidence of treatment effect on parental depressive symptoms and general mental health respectively, which did not show significant treatment effects post-intervention. Seventeen RCTs showed improved parent-child relationship (d = 0.33-2.28; low certainty of evidence).

Results demonstrated that parenting interventions promoting responsiveness had the largest positive effect on the parent-child relationship and a moderate effect on overall parenting stress; however, the studies were heterogeneous, making it difficult to identify the intervention components that were responsible for the positive treatment effects. There was no significant treatment effect for studies targeting depression or general mental health, likely due to the lack of an interventional component directly targeting mental health.