Hybrid Telehealth Adaptation of COMPASS for Hope: Parent-Mediated Outcomes in Autism
Hybrid telehealth C-HOPE lowers child behavior intensity and parent stress yet leaves parenting confidence unchanged.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rodgers et al. (2025) tested a hybrid telehealth version of COMPASS for Hope. Parents got short videos and message boards they could use any time. They also joined live Zoom coaching calls each week.
Ten caregivers of children with autism joined. The team checked child behavior, parent stress, and how confident parents felt before and after the eight-week program.
What they found
Kids' tough behaviors dropped a lot. Parent stress went down by a medium amount. Yet parents did not feel more skilled or confident at the end.
In short: hybrid telehealth helped the child and the parent’s mood, but it did not boost parenting self-confidence.
How this fits with other research
McGarty et al. (2018) ran the earlier C-HOPE program and saw lower stress, fewer behaviors, AND a jump in parenting competence. The new hybrid kept the first two gains but lost the third. The switch from longer live classes to short async clips may explain the gap.
Wallisch et al. (2024) also used hybrid telehealth. They found that parents who started with low confidence used the async parts most and then gained confidence. Rodgers’ group did not track who used what, so the missing competence bump could hide inside unequal use.
Ferguson et al. (2018) reviewed 28 telehealth ABA studies and warned that many are weak. Rodgers adds a 2025 data point with clear child and stress gains, helping answer Ferguson’s call for stronger evidence.
Why it matters
You can cut driving time and still drop child problem behavior and parent stress. Just do not expect the format alone to make parents feel like super-parents. Add quick checks on who watches the async clips, and boost those parents with extra live practice if their confidence stays flat.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There are limited empirically supported interventions that target three outcomes—behavior of children with ASD (instead of using adjectives such as “disruptive,” “interfering,” “problem,” or “challenging” behavior, we use “behavior” to avoid ableist language), parent stress, and parenting sense of competence. To help address this need, we tested a hybrid telehealth adaptation of COMPASS for Hope (C-HOPE), an 8-week parent-mediated program originally offered via face-to-face or synchronous telehealth delivery. The present study incorporated asynchronous group discussion board sessions hosted on a learning-management platform together with synchronous individual coaching sessions by telephone. Using a pre-post design, 10 caregivers completed the intervention. Effect sizes were calculated for three treatment outcomes of child behavior, parent stress, and parenting sense of competence. There was a statistically significant difference in the scores for child behavior, with a large effect size (d = 0.73) and a statistically significant difference in parent stress, with a medium effect size (d = 0.50). No difference was observed for parenting sense of competence. Treatment adherence and caregiver satisfaction for the intervention were acceptable. Findings support the feasibility and promise of combining asynchronous and synchronous telehealth elements to increase access to evidence-based parent-mediated interventions for ASD.
Behavioral Sciences, 2025 · doi:10.3390/bs15111561