TY - JOUR
T1 - Seeing it my way
T2 - A perspective taking intervention alleviates psychological distress in caregivers of autistic children
AU - Lovell, Brian
AU - Newman, Amy
AU - Wetherell, Mark
N1 - Funding information: Authors thank the British Academy/Leverhulme small research grants for funding this research (grant reference: SRG1819\190669).
PY - 2023/2/1
Y1 - 2023/2/1
N2 - Cognitively empathic caregivers are able to take the perspective of their autistic child(ren) without experiencing vicarious distressing emotions, and typically report lower psychological distress. Taking the perspective of the autistic child might, through fostering cognitive empathy, might relieve caregivers’ psychological distress. Here we explored whether autism perspective taking videos developed by the National Autistic Society (NAS), intended to raise public awareness about autism, might be effective, packaged as an intervention, for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress. A sample of 24 caregivers of autistic children completed questionnaires capturing psychological distress and cognitive empathy at baseline. For three consecutive days, for two-three minutes per day, caregivers watched perspective taking videos. Follow up assessments were collected 7, 14, and 21 days post intervention. Psychological distress was lower after seven days, and stayed lower 14 and 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Cognitive empathy was higher after 14 days, and remained higher 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Taking the perspective of the autistic child, achieved here with publically available NAS videos, seems to be effective for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress for up to three weeks. Future research might use more rigorous methodologies, incorporating control groups and larger samples, to explore moderators of intervention efficacy.
AB - Cognitively empathic caregivers are able to take the perspective of their autistic child(ren) without experiencing vicarious distressing emotions, and typically report lower psychological distress. Taking the perspective of the autistic child might, through fostering cognitive empathy, might relieve caregivers’ psychological distress. Here we explored whether autism perspective taking videos developed by the National Autistic Society (NAS), intended to raise public awareness about autism, might be effective, packaged as an intervention, for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress. A sample of 24 caregivers of autistic children completed questionnaires capturing psychological distress and cognitive empathy at baseline. For three consecutive days, for two-three minutes per day, caregivers watched perspective taking videos. Follow up assessments were collected 7, 14, and 21 days post intervention. Psychological distress was lower after seven days, and stayed lower 14 and 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Cognitive empathy was higher after 14 days, and remained higher 21 days post intervention compared with baseline. Taking the perspective of the autistic child, achieved here with publically available NAS videos, seems to be effective for increasing caregivers’ cognitive empathy and reducing their psychological distress for up to three weeks. Future research might use more rigorous methodologies, incorporating control groups and larger samples, to explore moderators of intervention efficacy.
KW - Autism
KW - Caregiving
KW - Empathy
KW - Intervention
KW - Perspective taking
KW - Psychological distress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144948737&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104396
DO - 10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104396
M3 - Article
SN - 0891-4222
VL - 133
JO - Research in Developmental Disabilities
JF - Research in Developmental Disabilities
M1 - 104396
ER -