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Children with chronic illness (CI) are at risk for internalizing problems, which reduce their quality of life, hamper treatment, and increase family stress. Accordingly, behavioral interventions are provided at the family level. However, the effects of parental involvement on child outcomes are not consistently beneficial. Therefore, it is relevant to study the working mechanisms. In the present study, we tested child coping and parenting stress as underlying mechanisms of the effect of an intervention for children and an additional group intervention for parents. Data were analyzed from a randomized controlled trial. Families of children with chronic illness (N = 120, child M age = 12.11 years, range 7.98–18.07) participated in a cognitive-behavioral-based group intervention and were randomized in the child-only intervention or parent–child intervention. Primary outcomes were parent- and child-reported internalizing problems, whereas the mediators were the use of child active coping skills and parenting stress. The causal model was tested with multilevel mediation analysis. Active coping skills and parenting stress stood out as significant mediators of the effect of the intervention on parent- and child-reported internalizing behavior (Cohen's d effect size range 0.29–1.57). When parents were involved in the intervention, children increased their use of active coping skills and parents decreased in parenting stress, which in turn improved child internalizing problems. Knowing that coping skills and parenting stress underlie the benefit of involving parents can be used for optimizing interventions for children with CI and addressing the risk of internalizing problems. Highlights: Parental involvement in interventions for children with chronic illness can be beneficial, however explanations are still unclear. In this randomized efficacy trial, child use of active coping skills and parenting stress appeared significant temporal mediators. Parental involvement supported child coping and diminished parenting stress, which in turn decreased child internalizing problems. Interventions for children with internalizing problems might be optimized by focusing on determined active components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust clinical evidence has not been available for melatonin, a drug commonly administered for treating sleep problems of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a phase 3 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, we administered 1-mg melatonin (n = 65), 4-mg melatonin (n = 65), or placebo (n = 66) to196 children with ASD once daily before bedtime under adequate sleep hygiene interventions. The primary outcome was sleep onset latency (SOL) assessed with the electronic sleep diary. SOL shortened significantly in the 1- and 4-mg melatonin groups compared to the placebo group (− 22.0, − 28.0, and − 5.0 min, respectively; p < 0.0001 each). This therapeutic regimen of melatonin is a reasonable clinical approach to cope with ASD-emergent difficulties in children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is promising for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but more methodologically robust designed studies are needed. In this randomized controlled trial, forty-four children with ASD, aged 9–15 years, were randomly allocated to PRT (n = 22) or treatment-as-usual (TAU; n = 22). Measurements were obtained after 12- and 20-weeks treatment, and 2-month follow-up. PRT resulted in significant greater improvements on parent-rated social-communicative skills after 12 weeks treatment (p =.004, partial η2 = 0.22), compared to TAU. Furthermore, larger gains in PRT compared to TAU were observed on blindly rated global functioning, and parent-rated adaptive socialization skills and attention problems. Implications for clinical practice and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]