ACT-based interventions for reducing psychological distress in parents and caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders: Recommendations for higher education programs

ABSTRACT

Caregivers of children with disabilities experience reduced psychological wellbeing. In existing evidence-based treatments for parents, the parental emotional struggles are often poorly addressed. In this paper, we present Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a contextual cognitive behavioural model, based on behaviour analysis, which may be particularly helpful for parents of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as autism. In fact, ACT may reduce the psychological inflexibility associated with parental distress, and unhelpful strategies for the management of reactive grief. We also present: a narrative review of the current literature about ACT in the field of parent support and ACT-intervention programs and study protocols from Italy and Sweden, which have been developed to support parents of children with ASD, ADHD and other disabilities. The importance of extending ACT interventions to parents of children with disabilities is discussed, and recommendations are made for future training and research in higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Neurodevelopmental disabilities
• ADHD
• ASD
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• parent training
• EIBI

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics statement and statement about conflict of interest

All the studies reported here have been approved by the appropriate institutional research ethics committee or regional ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.