Measuring family outcomes in parenting programs for children with neurodisabilities: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Background

Parenting programs for families of children with neurodisabilities are recommended as standard care because they often target child behavior problems that are tied to both child and parent well-being. Despite the family environment being the context in which skills learned through parenting programs are implemented, study outcomes typically focus on child and parent factors without consistently examining the family unit.

Aims

To identify how family-level outcomes are measured in the context of parenting programs for families of children living with neurodisabilities and comorbid behavior problems.

Methods

Scoping review methodology was used to identify and synthesize evidence related to parenting programs for families of children living with neurodisabilities that included some measurement of family well-being.

Results

Included in this review were 29 studies of parenting programs that involved some measure of family well-being. The results highlight the diversity in which family-level outcomes and family characteristics are conceptualized. General family functioning was the most frequently measured construct, though several disability-specific family measures were also identified.

Conclusions

Future research on parenting programs should include family-level outcomes beyond child and parent well-being. Researchers are encouraged to contextualize results based on the underlying theoretical frameworks that help to explain the family-related construct being measured.

KEYWORDS:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• family
• neurodisability
• parenting programs
• rehabilitation
• resilience

Acknowledgments

The first author was supported with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, content analysis, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors are grateful for the work of Adriana Gentile who contributed to the search process for this review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10522158.2023.2231986