Brief Report: Mindfulness Training for Chinese Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents in Hong Kong.

This was a pilot with 37 families, so it was not large enough to detect real differences between mindfulness and waitlist. The primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability, not whether mindfulness improved adolescent or parent functioning. Adolescent outcomes were reported by parents only, and the program evaluation was completed only by parents, not adolescents. Homework completion was not measured, so it is unclear whether participants practised the mindfulness exercises. The intervention ran during summer vacation, when school stress was absent, and both groups improved; this may make mindfulness effects hard to see. Participants and teachers could not be blinded, although data collectors and analysts were blinded. Baseline groups were not balanced on parent age and education; the mindfulness group had older and more educated parents. The reporting timelines of some pre-post measures overlapped, which may have led to inaccurate results. The study had a short follow-up, so long-term effects were unknown.

The supplied text reports only that the funder was the Health Care and Promotion Fund; no author conflict statements are provided.

Do not read the 1.16 rumination effect size as proof mindfulness worked. This was a pilot, all secondary outcomes had p values greater than 0.05, and the waitlist group also improved.