BackgroundMental health problems are common among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and difficulties with emotion regulation processes may underlie these issues. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is considered an efficacious treatment for anxiety in children with ASD. Additional research is needed to examine the efficacy of a transdiagnostic treatment approach, whereby the same treatment can be applied to multiple emotional problems, beyond solely anxiety. The purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a manualized and individually delivered 10‐session, transdiagnostic CBT intervention, aimed at improving emotion regulation and mental health difficulties in children with ASD.MethodsSixty‐eight children (M age = 9.75, SD = 1.27) and their parents participated in the study, randomly allocated to either a treatment immediate (n = 35) or waitlist control condition (n = 33) (ISRCTN #67079741). Parent‐, child‐, and clinician‐reported measures of emotion regulation and mental health were administered at baseline, postintervention/postwaitlist, and at 10‐week follow‐up.ResultsChildren in the treatment immediate condition demonstrated significant improvements on measures of emotion regulation (i.e., emotionality, emotion regulation abilities with social skills) and aspects of psychopathology (i.e., a composite measure of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, adaptive behaviors) compared to those in the waitlist control condition. Treatment gains were maintained at follow‐up.ConclusionsThis study is the first transdiagnostic CBT efficacy trial for children with ASD. Additional investigations are needed to further establish its relative efficacy compared to more traditional models of CBT for children with ASD and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

The current study highlights individual and environmental factors amenable to intervention that may foster successful community participation among youth with ASD and ID.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) benefit from parent involvement in their therapy, and there is evidence that this involvement may improve parent functioning as well. We examined changes in parent mental health, parenting, and expressed emotion, following participation in a randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy for 57 children with ASD. Post-intervention, improvements occurred in the treatment group in parent depression and emotion regulation, compared to waitlisted parents. Treatment effects also occurred across all parents in depression, emotion regulation, perceptions of their children and mindful parenting. Though preliminary, these results have implications for intervention development and evaluation by focusing on parent outcomes in child treatment.

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There has been a substantial increase in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research over the last decade. An important advancement in this research has been in the study of well-being in people with ASD. The purpose of the current study was to examine the deficit and strength foci of wellbeing research in the field. One thousand one hundred and fifty-four articles were randomly selected across five major ASD journals over an 11-year period and were coded for a focus on well-being, perspective (deficits, strengths, or mixed), intervention or non-intervention study, topic area, and methodology. Approximately 37% (n = 431) of articles focused on well-being of people with ASD. Half of these studies had a deficits perspective (50.3%), 11% had a strengths perspective, while the rest were mixed (i.e. both deficits-and strengths-focused). Roughly 41% of well-being articles were intervention studies. Approximately 58% of strengths-and mixed-focused articles included a focus on a strength construct (e.g. positive affect, self-determination). The current study provides a foundation for future strengthsfocused work, which is essential to our understanding of wellbeing and positive functioning. Findings highlight trends with respect to the focus on strengths in ASD research, which may have important implications on positive conceptualizations of ASD and future strengths-focused research and practice.