Table 1.

Characteristics of the reviewed studies (n = 17).

Authors (Year)	Location	Study Design	Sample Characteristics N Age = M (SD)	Parental Involvement	Intervention	Setting	Length/Frequency	Instruments	Relevant Findings
Aandersson et al. (2017) [39]	Sweden	Qualitative study	56 Parents of Children with ASD (n = 56 Children; Mage ≈ 9 Years, Female = 23.21%)	Indirect	Early Intervention, ABA	Clinics	2 Years/25 h/Week	Semi-Structured Questionnaire	Thematic Content Analysis Too much responsivity and lack of knowledge about intervention methods. Perceived support as unequal, uncoordinated, and with variations. Unequal treatments depending on socioeconomic status. lack of individualization of interventions.
Baghdadli et al. (2014) [10]	France	Cross-Sectional	152 Mothers (92.12%) and 13 Fathers of Adolescents with ASD (n = 152 Adolescents; Mage = 15 Years; SD = 1.6, Female = 17.8%)	None	Mixed	Clinics	NA/31.3 5 h/week	Par-DD-QoL	Polytomic Logistic Regression Analysis A higher number of hours of specialized intervention is associated with lower parental emotional QoL (ORa = 2.69, 95% CI = 1.1–5.9, p = 0.04).
Derguy et al. (2018) [40]	France	Cross-Sectional	115 Parents (Female = 63.5%) of Children with ASD (n = 78 Children; Mage = 6.3, SD = 2.3, Female = 23.1%)	None	Psycho-Educational Intervention (74% of the Sample)	NA	NA	WHOQOL-BREF	Hierarchical Regression Analyses Parents showed better QoL whether their child received psychoeducation intervention (β = 0.25, p = 0.010).
Due et al. (2018) [41]	Australia	Mixed-Method Study	27 Parents (Female = 48.14%) of Children with ASD (n = 27 Children; Mage = 5, SD = 2.0, Female = 18.52%)	Direct	Early intervention	Clinics	NA	Quality of Life in Autism Questionnaire; Semi-Structured Interviews	Thematic Content Analysis Parental direct involvement in the intervention increased several aspects of their QoL (e.g., sense of competence and confidence as parents, community participation).
Hwang et al. (2015) [42]	Taiwan	Pre-Post Design	6 Mother-Child dyads (Children with ASD; Age Range = 8–15 Years, Female = 20%)	Direct	Parent-Mediated Home-Based Training	Home	12 Months	Family Quality of Life (FQoL)	Paired Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test The parent-mediated home-based training was associated with marginally significant increase in family quality of life.
Ji et al. (2014) [43]	China	Quasi-Experimental Design	22 Caregivers (Female = 90.9%) of Children with ASD (Intervention Group, n = 22 Children with ADS; Mage = 4.93, SD = 2.03, Female = 18.2%) and 20 Caregivers (Female = 90.0%) of Children with ASD (control group, n = 20 Children with ASD, Mage = 5.65, SD = 1.74, Female = 15%)	Direct	Parent Education Program	Clinics	8 Weeks	Caregiver Burden Index (CBI)	Independent-Samples t-test Parents’ mental HRQOL significantly improved after the intervention (t = −2.138; p = 0.039). Parents’ physical HRQOL did not improve after the intervention (t = −1463; p = 0.151).
Jones et al. (2017) [44]	Canada	Cross-Sectional	151 Caregivers (Female = 78.95%) of children with ASD (n = 151 Children with ASD; Mage = 7.3, SD = 3.9, Female = 23.84%)	Indirect	None/Intensive Behavioural Intervention, Intervention from a Speech and Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy Services	NA	NA	Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOLS)	Correlation Analyses Time on waiting list was not significatively associated with family QoL.
Leadbitter et al. (2018) [45]	United Kingdom	Pre-Trial Research Design	152 Parents of Children with ASD (n = 152 Children with ASD, Mage = 45 Months, Female = 9.21%)	Direct	Parent-Mediated Video-Aided Pre-School Communication-Focused Intervention	Clinics	13 Months	Autism Family Experience Questionnaire (AFEQ)	Effect Estimation Analysis AFEQ total score improved significantly after the treatment and at the 6-year follow-up.
Leadbitter et al. (2020) [46]	United Kingdom	Qualitative Study	18 Parents (Female = 66.67%) of Children with ASD (n = 12 Children with ASD, Mage = 44.42 Months, SD = 7.04, Female = 8.33%)	Direct	Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy	NA	12 Months	Semi-Structured Interview	Thematic Content Analysis Post-intervention improved family wellbeing.
Mathew et al. (2019) [47]	Australia	Cross-Sectional	161 Parents (Female = 90.7%) of Children with ASD (n = 117 Children with ASD, Mage = 4.13, SD = 0.53, Female = 17.9%)	Direct	Early Intervention using the Early Start Denver Model	Clinics	NA	Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC)	Independent-Samples t-test Significantly greater levels of depression symptoms, anxiety, and stress among mothers (who have the primary caregiver role) than among fathers of children with ASD.
McConkey (2020) [48]	United Kingdom	Validation Study	449 Parents (Female = 92.6%) of Children with ASD or with Suspected ASD (n = 449 Children with ASD, Age Range = 2–11 years, Female = 25.6%)	Direct	Family-Centred Intervention	Home	Median = 8 Weeks	Eight Items Questionnaire	Step-Wise, Linear Regression Parental with adequate or poor engagement in intervention showed significantly lower parental well-being than those with good engagement in intervention (β = 4.72; SE 1.54; p < 0.002).
McConkey et al. (2020) [49]	United Kingdom	Observational Study	92 Families with Children with ASD (n = 96 Children, Mage = 7.7, Female = 20.8%)	Direct	Post-Diagnostic Support	Home	12 Months	Two Rating Scales	Thematic Content Analysis Parents reported higher self-confidence and reduced stress within the family after the intervention.
McPhilemy & Dillenburger (2013) [50]	United Kingdom	Observational Study	15 Families with Children or Adolescents with ASD (n = 17 Children or Adolescents with ASD, Mage= 38 Months, Age Range = 2–20 Years, Female = 11.76%)	Direct	ABA-based Home Program	Home	M = 48 Months	Questionnaire	Thematic Content Analysis ABA-based home program had significant positive impact on family quality of life.
Milbourn et al. (2017) [51]	Australia/Sweden	Observational/Qualitative Study	521 Caregivers (Female = 81%) with Children with ASD (n = 400 Children with ASD (76.78%), Mage = 9.92, SD = 4.17, Female = 17%)	Direct	Mixed	NA	NA	Multidimensional Questionnaire	Thematic Content Analysis Respondents indicated that early interventions improved their family life (71.3% answered “somewhat” or “definitely”). Respondents agreed that earlier access to intervention would have led to improved child’s quality of life (78.4% answered “somewhat” or “definitely”).
Moody et al. (2019) [52]	United States	Randomised Controlled Trial	67 Parents (Active Group, Female = 91.0%; Waitlist, Female = 88.2%) of Children with ASD (n = 33 Intervention Group, Female = 18.2%) (n = 67 Children with ASD, Range age 2–8 Years, Female = 14.7%)	Direct	Colorado Parent Mentoring (CPM) Program	Mixed	Six Months	Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOLS)	Mixed Modelling CPM program positively impacted several areas of family quality of life, regardless the amount of formal intervention received.
Paynter et al. (2018) [53]	Australia	Mixed Methods	26 Fathers of Children with ASD (n = 26 Children with ASD, Age Range 2.5–6 Years, Female = 26.4%)	Indirect	Early Intervention	Clinics	NA	Parenting Stress Index (PSI)	Thematic Content Analysis According to some fathers’ family adaptation was negatively affected by inaccessible and/or gender-biased formal supports.
Roberts et al. (2011) [54]	Australia	Randomised Controlled Trial	84 Children with ASD (n = 27 Home-Based Group, n = 29 Centre-Based Group, n = 28 Control, Mage = 3.5, SD = 0.61, Female = 9.5%)	Direct and Indirect	Early Intervention (Home-based Intervention vs. Centre-Based Intervention)	Home vs. Clinical Centres	1 Year (40 Weeks)	Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOLS), Parenting Stress Index (PSI)	Analysis of Covariance Parents of children who followed the centre-based intervention showed significant improvements in family QoL. Parents of children who followed the home-based intervention showed the least improvement in family QoL over all groups.