Mindfulness Intervention for Parents of Children With ASD
NCT ID: NCT05746468
Last Updated: 2024-12-05
Study Results
The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.
Basic Information
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NOT_YET_RECRUITING
NA
526 participants
INTERVENTIONAL
2025-07-31
2025-12-31
Brief Summary
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1. To establish the relationship between different life events, cognitive appraisal, and the psychological distress between parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD);
2. To demonstrate the relationship between parents' cognitive appraisal of life events and psychological distress moderated by mindfulness;
3. To examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) via ecological momentary intervention (EMI) in reducing the psychological distress of parents of children with ASD;
4. To calculate the cost-effectiveness of MBI via EMI in reducing the psychological distress of parents of children with ASD.
Detailed Description
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This study aims to answer four research questions:
1. What's the relationship between participants' cognitive appraisal of their life events and psychological distress?
2. Will an increased level of mindfulness moderate the relationship between participants' cognitive appraisal of life events and psychological distress?
3. Will the participants who received MBI via EMI report significantly lower levels of psychological distress compared with those who did not?
4. Will the MBI via EMI be a more cost-effective option compared with the control group?
The proposed study will recruit 526 parents of children with ASD and randomly assign them into the intervention and control groups (263 in each group). Participants in the intervention group will install the EMI app on their smartphone. In the app, participants can browse different mindfulness exercises in the intervention bank at any time, talk to a virtual counselor and receive tailored mindfulness practice daily, practice formal mindfulness exercise every week, complete ecological momentary assessments on the cognitive appraisal of life events and receive a daily log of change of psychological status. Participants in the control group will only receive standardized mindfulness practice instructions 3 times/week. The effects of MBI will be assessed at the end of the intervention and at the 2-month follow-up.
The primary outcome will be participants' psychological distress measured by the depression anxiety stress scale. The secondary outcomes will include participants' subjective well-being, measured by the satisfaction with life scale, level of resilience measured by the psychological empowerment scale and the feasibility and acceptability of the EMI, measured by the treatment acceptability and adherence scale.
The potential benefit of the proposed study is to increase psychological well-being of parents of children with ASD and the method may extend to other participants in the future.
Conditions
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Study Design
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RANDOMIZED
PARALLEL
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
DOUBLE
Study Groups
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Intervention group
The intervention group will receive a combination of (1) a time-based system-triggered EMI, which will collect participants' sources and status of depression, anxiety and depression in daily life and provide instructions (audios and videos) on mindfulness practice, and (2) a longitudinal survey in parents of children with ASD. The participants will first complete a baseline questionnaire, and then participate in EMI via a smartphone application (App) for 8 consecutive weeks and receive the exercise prompts daily. The EMI will include questions of the self-reported feelings of depression, anxiety and depression. After the 8-week EMI, the participants will be invited to complete a post-experimental survey with similar questions in the baseline questionnaire. Two months after completing the EMI, participants will be contacted to complete a telephone follow-up survey with similar questions in the baseline questionnaire.
Ecological assessment and intervention
The MBI-EMI app will include five main parts, including virtual counselor, intervention library, weekly mindfulness practice, assessment bank and daily emotion log. In the eight weeks, the virtual counselor will initiate the conversation every day for three times (morning, afternoon and evening) to check the status of the participants. If the participants responded, the virtual counselor would invite the participants to rate their level of depression, stress and anxiety and then recommend appropriate mindfulness practice in the intervention library, such as 3-minute breathing space or mindful eating. The conversation between the virtual counselor and participants will be in the format of menu list and participants can easily choose from different options.
Control group
The control group will receive the longitudinal survey exactly the same as the intervention group and 8-week mindfulness-based short-messages sent by the research team on a daily basis. The messages will contain instructions of mindfulness-based practice which will be the same as the intervention group.
Audio-based Mindfulness intervention
The control group will receive audio recordings of how to practice mindfulness at home.
Interventions
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Ecological assessment and intervention
The MBI-EMI app will include five main parts, including virtual counselor, intervention library, weekly mindfulness practice, assessment bank and daily emotion log. In the eight weeks, the virtual counselor will initiate the conversation every day for three times (morning, afternoon and evening) to check the status of the participants. If the participants responded, the virtual counselor would invite the participants to rate their level of depression, stress and anxiety and then recommend appropriate mindfulness practice in the intervention library, such as 3-minute breathing space or mindful eating. The conversation between the virtual counselor and participants will be in the format of menu list and participants can easily choose from different options.
Audio-based Mindfulness intervention
The control group will receive audio recordings of how to practice mindfulness at home.
Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria
* own a mobile smartphone with internet access;
* will stay in Hong Kong during the 8-week EMI study period, and
* able to read and write in Chinese.
Exclusion Criteria
* parents who do not live together with their children with ASD on the daily basis.
18 Years
75 Years
ALL
Yes
Sponsors
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The University of Hong Kong
OTHER
Responsible Party
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Xiaochen Zhou
Research Assistant Professor
Principal Investigators
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Qi Wang
Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
Lingnan University
Central Contacts
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References
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Wang Q, Ng SM, Zhou X. The mechanism and effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention for reducing the psychological distress of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: A protocol of randomized control trial of ecological momentary intervention and assessment. PLoS One. 2023 Sep 13;18(9):e0291168. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291168. eCollection 2023.
Other Identifiers
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EC077/2223
Identifier Type: -
Identifier Source: org_study_id