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The Impact of a Remotely Delivered Yoga Program on Adolescents with Autism: Engagement, Physical Outcomes, and Social Validity
Foster, Rachel Nicole Sobol
Foster, Rachel Nicole Sobol
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Abstract
Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spend less time engaged in regular physical activity (PA) and exercise compared to typically developing peers. Yoga is empirically validated to improve aspects of physical fitness such as balance, strength, and flexibility in neurotypical adolescents; however, there is little to no research on the impact of yoga on adolescents with ASD. Helsel et al. (2022) recently evaluated the effects of a 12-week remotely delivered yoga program (N = 143 classes) for adolescents (ages 11-18 years) with ASD (N = 19, 40% female) on physical changes in balance, strength, and flexibility. This dissertation explored intrapersonal factors and levels of engagement (i.e., attendance and time on task) that may have been associated changes in balance, strength, and flexibility across the 12-week yoga intervention, as well as the social importance of this intervention. Participants (N = 18) attended 83% of yoga classes, were on task 86.6 ± 13% of the classes they attended, and were on task for 71.3% ± 14% of the total intervention time. Results from linear regressions suggest there were no intrapersonal factors that predicted attendance across the intervention (p 0.05). Additionally, ANCOVA analyses suggest there is no evidence for a significant interaction between attendance and time on task on percent change in foundational PA skills or raw scores on PA outcome assessments (p 0.05). Parents and participants rated the acceptability, enjoyment, and perceptions of this intervention during end-of-study interviews (49% of comments by parents were positive, and 43% of comments by adolescents were positive) and the author further categorized comments via the social validity of the goals, procedures, and effects of the intervention. Clinical experts (N = 7) rated this intervention as socially valid as assessed by a modified version of the Intervention Rating Profile-15 (m score = 85.1). These results add to the literature on youth with ASD’s engagement in novel remotely delivered exercise programs, as well as the social importance of these types of interventions.
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Date
2022-12-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Behavioral psychology, Physical education, Behavioral sciences, attendance, autism, exercise, physical activity, time on task, yoga