Parent Engagement With a Telehealth-Based Parent-Mediated Intervention Program for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Predictors of Program Use and Parent Outcomes

BACKGROUND: There has been growing interest in using telehealth to increase access to parent-mediated interventions for children with ASD. However, little is known about how parents engage with such programs. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents program engagement data from a pilot study comparing self-directed and therapist-assisted versions of a novel telehealth-based parent-mediated intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHODS: Parents of young children with ASD were randomly assigned to receive a self-directed or therapist-assisted version of ImPACT Online. Parent engagement and satisfaction with the different components of the program website were examined using the program’s automated data collection and a post-treatment evaluation survey. We examined the relationship between program engagement and changes in parent knowledge and implementation and participant characteristics associated with program engagement. RESULTS: Of the 27 parent participants, the majority were female (26/27, 96%), married (22/27, 81%), with a college degree or higher (15/27, 56%), and less than half were not employed outside of the home (10/27, 37%). The mean chronological age of the child participants was 43.26 months, and the majority were male (19/27, 70%) and white (21/27, 78%). Most of the families (19/27, 70%) resided in a rural or medically underserved area. Parents logged into the website an average of 46.85 times, spent an average of 964.70 minutes on the site, and completed an average of 90.17% of the lesson learning activities. Participants in the therapist-assisted group were more likely to engage with the website than those in the self-directed group: F (2,24)=17.65, P<.001. In total, 85% of participants completed the program, with a significantly greater completion rate in the therapist-assisted group (N=27): χ(2) (1)=5.06, P=.03. Lesson learning activities were visited significantly more often than the supplemental activities (all Ps<.05). Multiple regression controlling for pretreatment performance indicated that program completion (beta=.51, P=.02) predicted post-treatment intervention knowledge, and program completion (beta=.43, P=.03) and group assignment (beta=-.37, P=.045) predicted post-treatment intervention fidelity. Partial correlations indicated that parent depressive symptoms at pretreatment were negatively associated with program completion (r=-.40, P=.04), but other key parent and child demographic factors were not. Post-treatment measures of website usability (r=.65, P<.001), treatment acceptability (r=.58, P=.002), and overall satisfaction (r=.58, P=.002) were all related to program completion. CONCLUSIONS: Parent engagement and satisfaction with ImPACT Online was high for both self-directed and therapist-assisted versions of the program, although therapist assistance increased engagement. Program completion was associated with parent outcomes, providing support for the role of the website in parent learning. This program has the potential to increase access to parent-mediated intervention for families of children with ASD.