SynthesisDevelopmental medicine and child neurology2023
Psychological interventions targeting mental health and the mother-child relationship in autism: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Developmental medicine and child neurology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychological interventions targeting mental health and the mother-child relationship in autism: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Mindful Parenting and Emotional and Behavioural Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Chain Mediating Role of Parenting Stress and Family Management.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Adapting compassionate mind training into guided self-help for parents of autistic children.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2026Article
- Article
- A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms in Parents of Autistic Children: The Mediating Role of Parenting Stress.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Digital health interventions targeting psychological health in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: a scoping review.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- "Bottom of My Own List:" Barriers and Facilitators to Mental Health Support Use in Caregivers of Children with Neurodevelopmental Support Needs.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Breath-Focused Mindfulness and Compassion Training in Parent-Child Dyads: Pilot Intervention Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Parents' Emotional Journey Throughout Their Participation in a Well-Being Support Group Intervention.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID · 2025Article
- Digital Health Interventions Targeting Psychological Health in Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Protocol for a Scoping Review.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Comparative effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction and psychoeducational support on parenting stress in families of autistic preschoolers.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Moderating effects of general self-efficacy on courtesy stigma and anxiety and depressive symptoms of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Trends in Autism Spectrum-Related Motherhood Research: A Bibliometric Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Review
- Identifying major predictors for parenting stress in a caregiver of autism spectrum disorder using machine learning models.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo 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.
methodElectronic 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.
resultsThirty-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).
interpretationResults 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.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.