Bates, Alison; (2018) Cygnet Psycho-educational Intervention Programme for Parents of Children on the Autistic Spectrum: A study exploring changes in the parents' perceived self-efficacy, wellbeing and their children’s behaviour. Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Abstract Aim: When a child receives a diagnosis of autism, their parents will often find it difficult to understand the condition and its impact on the child’s behaviour. As a result, parents often seek help to obtain a better understanding of autism and strategies to help them address these difficulties. The Cygnet programme is a parenting intervention designed to meet such needs delivered by educational psychologists in the United Kingdom. To date, there has been little research on the effectiveness of this intervention. Method: This study consisted of a small-scale evaluation of cohorts attending seven separate programmes within one local authority. A non-randomised, mixed methods was adopted and comprised an intervention group (n=24) of parents who attended a Cygnet programme and a control group (n=16) of parents on the waiting list to attend the programme. All parents completed standardised questionnaires of perceived parental self-efficacy, wellbeing and child behaviour at three time points (0, 6 and 18 weeks). A sample (n=6) of programme attendees were interviewed to provide qualitative data. Findings: The quantitative data obtained did not demonstrate statistically significant differences between the two groups. However, the qualitative data found that the Cygnet Intervention was beneficial for parents of a child with autism. All the parents interviewed were extremely positive about the programme, not just for the knowledge they acquired and subsequently were able to utilise, but for the contact they had with parents in a similar situation. The study also found statistically significant associations between perceived self-efficacy and wellbeing and perceived wellbeing and child behaviour for the Intervention group, which were not replicated in the Control Group. Conclusions: Attendance on the Cygnet programme provided the parents with increased self-efficacy and wellbeing with some perceived improvements in their child’s behaviour. Limitations of this study and areas for future research were also discussed. Key words: Parent intervention, mixed methods, self-efficacy, wellbeing, child behaviour

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