A Mobile Phone App-based Intervention for Supporting and Empowering Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): a Randomised Waitlist-controlled Trial
The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a 6-week mobile app-based intervention in empowering and supporting Chinese parents of ASD children through knowledge and skills transfer and mindfulness training, to explore factors associated with enhanced user experiences and sustained usage through participants' qualitative feedback and observing naturalistic usage patterns beyond the active intervention period, and to refine the mobile app based on the data prior to wider dissemination of the app. We hypothesise that there will be a greater reduction in parental stress and mood symptoms, and improvement of mindfulness attitude and parenting competence in parents with ASD children after the 6-week app-based intervention than the waitlist controls.
• Chinese parents living in Hong Kong
• Parents caring for ASD children, diagnosed by clinicians according to the criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria and aged ≤12
• Recruited from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric clinic at the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, a regional hospital providing the sole public child and adolescent psychiatric service in the New-Territory East Cluster of the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong
• Able to read and understand Cantonese
• Have access to an internet-enabled mobile phone with a valid phone number for the duration of the trial