An Empowering Parent Training Intervention to Increase Physical Activity in Preschool Aged Children With Autism

April 6, 2026 updated by: Northeastern University

An Empowering Parent Training Intervention to Increase Physical Activity in Preschool Aged Children With Autism: A Randomized Control Trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if WE PLAY for Parents can improve caregivers' knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and skills promoting physical activity with their young child with autism. The main questions it aims to answer are: (1) Do participants who complete WE PLAY for Parents improve their knowledge, behavior intentions, perceived behavior control, self-efficacy, and parenting practices related to physical activity promotion with their child (Primary Hypotheses); and (2) Do participants view WE PLAY for Parents as acceptable, understandable, and feasible [secondary hypothesis)?

Researchers will compare the WE PLAY for Parents group [experimental arm] to a Waitlist Control group to see if there are differences in the variables listed in the primary hypothesis.

Participants will: (1) Complete a set of questionnaires at three timepoints: pre-training, post-training, and 3-month follow-up that each take between 10-15 minutes; (2) be randomly assigned to take the training over the next two weeks or be offered the training after 3 months.

The online training takes about 90 minutes. It includes watching informational videos, viewing video clips of adults helping children be active, reading handouts on behavior management tips and social stories, participating in an anonymous discussion board with other parents, and completing a self-assessment.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

After completing a study interest form to determine eligibility and providing informed consent, participants will be randomized to the WE PLAY for Parents or a Waitlist Control group. At week 0, all participants will complete the pre-test survey and WE PLAY for Parents group participants will receive access to the WE PLAY for Parents intervention. At week 2, participants in both groups will complete a post-training survey. At week 14, participants in both groups will complete a three-month follow-up survey. At week 14, after completing the third survey, participants in the Waitlist Control group will receive access to WE PLAY for Parents.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

114

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Recruiting
        • Northeastern University
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Jessica Hoffman, PhD, NCSP
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Haley V Medeiros, MS, CAGs
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parents or caregivers (who are at least 18 years of age) of children with a diagnosis of autism.
  • The autism diagnosis for the child can be from a school or medical setting.
  • The parent or caregiver's child with autism must be between 2 years 11 months and 5 years, 11 months of age.
  • Parent or caregivers must be able to read and write in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Parents or caregivers who do not have a child with autism.
  • Adults who do not have children.
  • Parents or caregivers who cannot read and write in English.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: WE PLAY for Parents Group
Participants in the WE PLAY for Parents Group will be asked to complete the intervention in the first two weeks of the study period.
Behavioral: Wellness Enhancing Physical Activity for Young Children: Parent Version (WE PLAY for Parents)
WE PLAY for Parents is an online intervention that includes an asynchronous online training with written material about physical activity promotion. Users view video clips of adults promoting active play with young children, review handouts with behavior management tips and social stories, participate in an anonymized discussion board with other parent participants, and complete a self-assessment. Intervention completion is takes between 1.5 to 2 hours.
No Intervention: Control Group
Participants in the Waitlist Control group will be given access to the WE PLAY for Parents training after their study data collection is complete. This group will not receive any intervention during the data collection period.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from Pre-Training in Parental Confidence in Promoting Physical Activity for their Children on the Preschool Parent Confidence Questionnaire (PPCQ) at Week 2
Time Frame: Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
The PPCQ is a 17-item, self-report instrument measuring parental confidence in promoting physical activity for their children (Coleman, 2010). The 17 items are rated 0 (not confident)-10 (totally confident), yielding a total score (0-170) with higher scores indicating higher parental self-efficacy. The PPCQ demonstrates strong reliability (α = 0.92-0.94).
Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
Change from Pre-Training in Parental Physical Activity Knowledge at Week 2
Time Frame: Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
The physical activity knowledge test measures parental knowledge of physical activity promotion among young children with autism. The measure contains 10 multiple-choice items that were developed based on content from the WE PLAY for Parents online intervention. Scores range from 0-10 with higher scores indicating stronger knowledge.
Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
Change from Pre-Training in Parental Behavioral Intention and Perceived Behavioral Control on the Adapted Early Childhood Educator Movement Behavioral Intention and Perceived Control Questionnaire (ECE-MBIPC) at Week 2
Time Frame: Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
An adapted version of the validated ECE-MBIPC assesses behavior intentions and perceived behavior control over five physical activity-related behaviors. The 10 items are rated using a 7-point, Likert-type scale, and generate composite scores for behavioral intention (5 items) and perceived control (5 items), with higher scores indicating greater likelihood of engagement. Composite scores range from 0-35 for behavioral intention and perceived control. The ECE-MBIPC questionnaire shows high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.85 across subscales) (Bruijns et al., 2023).
Pre-training (Week 0), Post-training (Week 2)
Change from Pre-Training in Parental Physical Activity Promotion Practices on the Preschooler Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PPAPP) at Week 14
Time Frame: Pre-training (week 0), 3-month Follow-Up (week 14).
The Engagement subscale of the PPAPP measures parental encouragement of physical activity. This subscale includes 15 items that are rated using a 5-point scale. Scores range from 0-75 and higher scores indicate more frequent PA-promoting practices. Cronbach's α values= 0.87-0.92 (O'Connor et al., 2014).
Pre-training (week 0), 3-month Follow-Up (week 14).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Describe Acceptability, Understanding, and Feasibility of the WE PLAY for Parents Intervention with the Usage Rating Profile-Intervention Revised (URP-IR) at Post-Training
Time Frame: Post-training (Week 2)
The URP-IR assesses intervention acceptability (7 items), understanding (3 items), and feasibility (6 items). Items are rated using a 6-point scale with higher scores reflecting greater likelihood of intervention adoption and use (α = 0.72-0.95) (Briesch et al., 2013).
Post-training (Week 2)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Northeastern University

Collaborators

Society for Pediatric Psychology
APA: American Psychological Association

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jessica Hoffman, PhD, NCSP, Northeastern University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 20, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 5, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 11, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 19, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 6, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB#25-12-22
  • 26-C-01055 (Other Identifier: Northeastern University)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Only fully-anonymized data will be used for future research or shared with other researchers for their own studies.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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