NCT07375043

Drumming Groups for Parents of Autistic Children

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 10 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Arizona State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This project aims to encourage a sense of belonging, community, and emotional support for parents of autistic children through a group drumming (music therapy) intervention.

Detailed description

This pilot one-group pretest-posttest study will investigate the limited efficacy and acceptability of an 8-week drumming group on immediate stress (pre-post session) as measured by the STAI-S Short Form scale (Spielberger, 1977); on anxiety and depressive symptoms, as measured by the K-10 scale (Kessler et al., 2002) before and after the 8-week program, and group cohesion and acceptability as measured by the Group Therapy Experience Scale (GTES, Marziliano et al., 2018) after the program. As a group setting, this program does not substitute clinical treatment.

Conditions

• Anxiety Acute
• Stress
• Depression and Quality of Life
• Stress in Parents of Autistic Children

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Group Drumming	This Drumming program is based on HealthRhythms®, a drumming protocol that has been used extensively in clinical and community populations and has research support (e.g., Grab et al., 2023; Stevens \& Fowl, 2024; Wachi et al., 2007). Adaptations will be derived from the PI's clinical and research experience with parents of autistic children. Each drumming session will have the following structure: introduction to the program, light movement \& music, icebreakers with small percussions, technique pointers for percussion instruments, rhythmic introductions (sharing names with a percussive rhythm), free group drumming, soundscapes (creating visualizations with drumming), verbal processing, closing drumming exercise. The soundscapes are creative outlets to "paint a picture" with music. These exercises promote community, engagement, emotional expression, and creative thinking, which reduce stress. Specific strategies will include reflecting, mirroring, validating, and solution reframing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-01-20
• Primary completion: 2026-06-15
• Completion: 2026-06-15
• First posted: 2026-01-29
• Last updated: 2026-01-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States