Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on quality of life and positive reappraisal coping among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

• QOL is considered a critical outcome for measuring the effectiveness of intervention programs for parents of children with ASD.
• To date, little is known about the effectiveness of MBI on QOL and coping in parents of children with ASD.
• MBI can improve psychological and social domains of QOL and enhance coping in parents of children with ASD.
• Parents who non-judgmentally respond to their children are expected to report better QOL and positive stress reappraisal coping.
• The MBI should be considered as a supportive intervention to help parents of children with ASD.

BackgroundPrevious research has supported mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to enhance quality of life (QOL) in different populations, but no studies have been found to examine the effectiveness of MBIs on QOL among parents of children with ASD.AimThe purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of brief MBI on perceived QOL and positive stress reappraisal (PSR) among parents of children with ASD.MethodsA quasi-experimental, with nonequivalent control group design was used. One hundred and four parents of children with ASD were equally assigned to the intervention and control groups. The study groups were matched on measures of their gender and age, and level of severity of ASD in children. The intervention group participated in MBI program for 5 weeks, while the control group had not attended the program.ResultsAfter the intervention program, results of paired samples t-test indicated that parents in the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in measures of psychological health domain of QOL, social health domain of QOL, mindfulness, and positive stress reappraisal with medium to large effect size (P < 0.01). The control group demonstrated improvement in measures of the dependent variables with small effect size.ConclusionMBI is culturally adaptable, acceptable, and effective method to improve QOL and PSR in parents of children with ASD.