Collateral Child and Parent Effects of Function‑Based Behavioral Interventions for Sleep Problems in Children and Adolescents with Autism.
A quick functional check of night wakings can improve sleep, mood, ASD symptoms, and parent stress all at once.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pettingell et al. (2022) tested a function-based ABA sleep package for autistic kids. Parents learned to spot why the child woke at night and then changed those triggers.
The team tracked sleep, daytime behavior, mom’s sleep, and parent stress before and after the plan.
What they found
Kids fell asleep faster and woke less. Small bonus gains showed up: less irritability, mild drop in ASD scores, moms slept a bit better, and parents felt less stress.
How this fits with other research
Sanberg et al. (2018) already showed parents can wipe out bedtime battles with Bedtime Fading plus Response Cost. Pettingell et al. (2022) adds a functional twist: find the ‘why’ first, then treat. The two studies line up—both cut sleep problems—but the newer one shows extra child and parent perks.
Coffey et al. (2021) and Sawyer et al. (2014) used the same practical FBA recipe for severe problem behavior and saw big behavior drops. Pettingell et al. (2022) moves that recipe to sleep and finds only small collateral gains, not the large ones seen when targeting aggression. The method travels, yet the payoff size hinges on the target you pick.
Boxum et al. (2018) and Dai et al. (2025) also lowered parent stress through parent-training packages. Pettingell et al. (2022) matches their stress-easing pattern, proving sleep work can be another doorway to calmer parents.
Why it matters
You already run functional analyses for problem behavior. Use the same interview-and-observation steps for night wakings. Pin the function, write a tiny plan, and you may boost daytime compliance and parent sanity while you fix sleep. One stone, many birds.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study follows McLay et al., Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, (2020) to investigate whether the function-based behavioral sleep interventions received by 41 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) produced collateral improvements in ASD severity, internalizing and externalizing symptoms and parent relationship quality, ratings of depression, anxiety and stress, and personal sleep quality. Concomitant with reduced sleep problem severity, improvements were found in children's internalizing and externalizing behavior and ASD symptom severity. Small improvements were also found in maternal sleep quality and parental stress. There was little change in parental relationship quality post-treatment, possibly reflecting high baseline scores. Overall, collateral benefits were generally small but positive, consistent with the limited extant research, and underscore the importance of investigating collateral effects across a range of variables.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05116-3