| Little is known about the utility of psychoeducation within a stepped care model as applied to the problem of autism treatment. The current study developed and pilot tested a psychoeducational website for parents who recently had a child diagnosed with autism. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the website. Three parents completed assessment measures throughout baseline, immediately following treatment implementation, and for three weeks of follow up. Results indicated that the website intervention met the goal of teaching parents to be educated consumers who understand behavioral principles and believe that applied behavior analysis is an acceptable and effective treatment for autism. Results further suggested that the intervention decreased parental stress, resulted in parents taking positive action on their child's behalf, and increased participant feelings of self-efficacy. It is notable that these results were obtained with only a few hours of intervention delivered unobtrusively and free of cost. This study points to psychoeducation as a promising intervention for the widespread public health problem of autism within the stepped care continuum. |
