Pre-Post Effects of the Psychoeducational, Autism-Specific Parent Training FAUT-E

Abstract

Objective: Psychoeducational parent training is an economic way to provide care for parents of children newly diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study explores pre-post effect sizes of the manualized autism-specific parent training FAUT-E (Frankfurter Autismus-Elterntraining). Method: Two behaviorally trained therapists worked with 6-10 parents in eight group sessions. Twenty-four parents of 24 children with ASD participated in the study. Outcomes were child- and parent-related measures obtained at T0 (first measurement), T1 (second measurement), T2 (postintervention), and T3 (3 months after intervention). Results: Children showed improved behavior in the parent-rated Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) total score after therapy (p = .001; ES T1T2 = .73) and at T3 (p = .018; ES T1-T3 = -.51), and a lower intensity of parent-rated problem behavior at T3 (p = .031; ES T1-T3 = -.46). Parental measures did not change. Conclusions: This study found medium pre-post effects on the child's behavior by FAUT-E between T1 and T2/T3; these were not observed between the measurements T0-T1. FAUT-E was easy to implement and did not increase parental stress. This is in line with results of studies on other training programs to teach parents to use effective behavioral strategies with ASD.

Keywords: Autismus-Spektrum-Störung; Elterntraining; FAUT-E; Kurzintervention; Psychoedukation; autism spectrum disorder; parent training; psychoeducation; short-term intervention.