Parent Mental Health

This research will aim to test how practical, achievable and effective a brief, guided, self-help compassion focused intervention is for parents of autistic children aged 6-17 years old. The demands of parenting can be rewarding but also challenging, and it is known that parents of autistic children experience additional pressures. As a result of this, parents of autistic children may be more likely to experience increased stress, anxiety, low mood and lower quality of life, compared to those parenting children who are not autistic. There has been only a small amount of research so far regarding whether interventions that focus on building compassion, would be beneficial to parents of autistic children. The purpose of this study is to test whether a short, self-guided compassion-focused intervention is practical, achievable and effective for parents of autistic children. The intervention is based on Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and involves reading workbook material and listening to audio tracks. There will also be some questionnaires to complete and 30-minute weekly support calls with the lead researcher. This intervention was adapted previously, from an intervention for parents in general, to be more suitable and focused on the needs of parents of autistic children. This study will be the first time the adapted intervention has been used by parents. The intervention will be tested by 6-8 parents and will be about 13 weeks long. We will collect some demographic data at the start of the study, and there will be the opportunity to complete an evaluation questionnaire.

Postpartum (child age 0-5 years) mental health problems are common, with prevalence rates ranging from 15-20% for depression, 3-43% for anxiety, and approximately 30% for anger. Depression, anxiety, and anger often occur comorbidly. If left untreated, these disorders can be long-lasting and lead to child behaviour problems, brain changes, and risk for later mental illness. We developed an app-based treatment for parental mental illness: Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health in Parenting (BEAM). The BEAM program includes mental health and parenting videos, peer coaching, as well as a forum and drop-in Zoom sessions where parents can connect with each other to receive and provide social support. The program is supported by peer coaches (parents with lived experience of recovery from mental illness and who may have received emotion-focused parenting support) and supervised by clinically-trained staff. Peer coaches check-in with parents weekly to support their progress. Our study will see the BEAM app's effect on parent mental health, parenting stress, child behaviour, and child brain structure and function. 240 parents with high depression, anxiety, and/or anger symptoms will be recruited, with half forming the treatment-as-usual group.