The effect of brief acceptance and commitment training on values-based behaviors of Japanese parents of children with autism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of brief acceptance and commitment training (ACT) on overt values-based behaviors, psychological flexibility, psychological well-being, and parental adherence of four Japanese mothers of children with autism. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants with pre- and post-measures was used in this study. All four participants received five 45–60 min of online ACT sessions. The level of psychological flexibility and psychological well-being were assessed using a 6-PAQ and PWBS-42, respectively. In addition, a social validity questionnaire assessed the feasibility and acceptability of the ACT. To establish clinically significant change, between-case standardized mean differences and non-overlap of all pairs (NAP) were calculated for overt values-based behaviors. Reliable change index was calculated for the reported scores of 6-PAQ and PWBS-42. The NAP analysis demonstrated that three out of four participants showed moderate to strong improvement in overt values-based behaviors and some participants showed a reliable increase in reported scores on psychological well-being. The results suggest that ACT was effective and acceptable for the Japanese population. The paper highlights the importance of cultural variables in designing, implementing, and analyzing data and provides direction for future studies.