Parent Education for Young Children With Autism and Disruptive Behavior: Response to Active Control Treatment

This study examines parent and child characteristics in young children with autism spectrum disorder and disruptive behavior who showed a positive response to a parent education program in a randomized clinical trial of parent training. Children with autism spectrum disorder (N = 180) were randomized to parent training (PT) or parent education program (PEP) for 6 months. Using the Clinical Global Impression–Improvement scale, masked independent evaluators rated positive response in 68.5% of children in PT compared to 39.6% in PEP. We compared baseline characteristics and change in parental stress, strain, competence, and mental health for participants who showed a positive response to PEP (PEP-R) to those who did not (PEP-NR). We also compared change in child and parent measures for PEP-R participants to those who showed a positive response to PT (PT-R). At baseline, PEP-R and PEP-NR participants did not differ on any demographic or clinical characteristics. Parents in PEP-R reported significant reduction...