Adolescents with ASD often have co-occurring mental health symptoms like stress, anxiety, and depression. The investigators are conducting this research study to develop interventions for adolescents with ASD that will improve co-occurring mental health symptoms.
Adolescents with ASD and their parents will complete a 3-hour in-person screening visit to determine eligibility for the study. Adolescents with ASD and their caregivers will participate in an 8-week mindfulness-based group intervention that meets once weekly at SARRC in Phoenix, Arizona. Each meeting will last approximately 2-hours. Teens and parents/caregivers will have separate meetings with separate group leaders but will reunite for approximately 15-minutes as a larger group to review home practice for the upcoming week. Teens and parents will each be given a free 1-year subscription to Ten Percent Happier, a commercially available mobile app focused on mindfulness meditations. Each week teens will be assigned home practice, which means we will ask participants to practice mindfulness meditation every day. The investigators will recommend specific meditations and activities to complete, but participants will have access to all mindfulness meditations on the Ten Percent Happier app. Teens and caregivers will be asked to complete questionnaires assessing things like mood, anxiety, quality of life, mindfulness in day-to-day life, and their perception of the intervention. These questionnaires will be done immediately before the intervention, immediately after completing the intervention, and at 2-month follow-up.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
28
Group-based psychoeducational mindfulness-based intervention.
Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
RECRUITINGMean Change from Baseline in Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) Scores
Parent-report measure of adolescent depressive symptoms. Scores range from 30 to 90 with higher scores indicating higher levels of depression symptoms.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) Scores
Parent-report measure of adolescent anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 30 to 90 with higher scores indicating higher levels of anxiety symptoms.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) Scores
Adolescent-report measure of mindfulness. Scores range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher levels of mindfulness.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Beck Youth Inventories (BYI) Scores
Adolescent-report measure of depression. Scores range from 0 to 90, with higher scores indicating higher levels of depression.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in World Health Organization-Five Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) Scores
Adolescent-report measure on current well-being. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better quality of life.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS-3) Scores
Parent-report measure of adolescent adaptive skills across the lifespan. Scores range from 40 to 120, with higher scores indicating better adaptive skills.
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Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) Scores
Parent-report measure of adolescent executive function and self-regulation. Scores range from 30 to 90, with higher scores indicating higher levels of executive dysfunction.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) Scores
Adolescent-report measure of mindfulness on observation, description, aware actions, non-judgmental inner experience, and non-reactivity. Factor scores range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating higher levels of mindfulness.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIPA) Scores
Parent-report measure of the relationship of parenting stress to adolescent characteristics, parent characteristics, the quality of the adolescent-parent interactions, and stressful life circumstances. Percentile scores range from 0 to 99, with higher scores indicating higher levels of parenting stress.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up
Mean Change from Baseline in Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) Scores
Parent-report measure of adolescent presence and severity of social impairment within autism spectrum. T-scores range from 30 to \> 90 with higher scores indicating greater social impairment.
Time frame: Post-intervention (8 weeks); 2-month follow-up