Examining the Relationship Between Parental Symptomatology and Treatment Outcomes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This report examines the relationship between treatment response in children with ASD and parents’ affective symptomatology. This study examined 29 children with ASD in a manualized group psychotherapy program, Resilience Builder Program ® (RBP), where emotional and social functioning of parent and child were measured through pre- and post-treatment questionnaires. Greater parental symptomatology was associated with children’s reduced response to RBP in resilience-based emotion regulation skills. Greater parental interpersonal sensitivity (β = − .27, p = .024) predicted worse post-treatment scores in child communication skills, greater parental anxious symptoms (β = − .45, p = .005) predicted worse post-treatment scores in child emotional control, and greater parental depressive (β = .27, p = .041) and anxious symptoms (β = .36, p = .004) predicted worse post-treatment scores in child internalizing problems.