A Systematic Review of Caregiver-Mediated Interventions for Autistic Adolescents: Implications for Social Validity

A growing body of evidence has accumulated in support of caregiver-mediated interventions in the service of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. However, few reviews of the literature have been conducted to examine the efficacy of caregiver-mediated behavioral interventions with adolescents (ages 10–18) with ASD and no known reviews of the literature have been conducted to assess the presence and quality of social validity measures in this area of research. The present study sought to review the current existing literature to evaluate the common treatment components, social validity, and overall quality of caregiver-mediated behavioral interventions with adolescents with ASD. Findings indicate a need for evaluation of reliable and valid measures of social validity as well as expanding the use of these measures to include feedback from adolescent clients.