The Effects of an Empowerment Program for Parents of Children With Autism

The Effects of an Empowerment Program for Parents of Children With Autism: A Randomised Controlled Trial

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an empowerment program that includes both parent training and motivational interviewing for parents of children with autism, supporting their competence in the care of their children.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of an empowerment program for parents of children with autism to support their competence in caring for their children. This randomized controlled study was conducted in Manisa city center/Turkey, in 2022. A total of 69 parents (intervention: 34, control: 35) were included in this unblinded, two-group randomized controlled interventional study. A parent empowerment program, including four parental training sessions and two motivational interview sessions, were applied to the parents in the intervention group. The Parental Self-Efficacy Scale, Zarit Care Burden Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Family Empowerment Scale were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the empowerment program.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Inclusion criteria were having a child diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 6 and 14, being literate, and volunteering to participate in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Having a child with a concomitant disability or disease (e.g., epilepsy, attention deficit, and hyperactivity disorder, other physical or mental disabilities), previous participation in an education program with similar content, or parents who did not participate in at least two-thirds of the empowerment training program or did not attend all motivational interview sessions were excluded from the study, and their data were not included in the analysis.