Factors influencing treatment decisions by parents for their children with autism spectrum disorder

• Parents allocated more resources toward treatments rated as effective and familiar.
• With fewer constraints, use of less effective and unfamiliar treatments increased.
• Participants preferred treatments with empirical support over more immediate results.

Studies examining the treatment choices of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have mostly addressed questions about the prevalence of certain treatments. Fewer studies have examined the factors that influence their treatment decisions. In this study, 18 parents of children with ASD rated treatments according to their knowledge about them and how effective they believed them to be. They then distributed tokens representing resources (i.e., money, time, and energy) amongst the treatments they were currently using, or would use were there fewer constraints. Finally, they distributed tokens amongst hypothetical treatments about which they were only given information regarding empirical support and immediacy of outcome. Without the constraints of cost and availability participants distributed resources broadly. However, participants showed a preference for empirical support over immediacy of treatment outcome.