Effectiveness of the coping and parental competence intervention on mental well-being in parents of preschool children with special educational needs: A randomized controlled trial

Parenting children with special educational needs presents multiple and unique challenges, often resulting in elevated emotional distress among caregivers. This study examined the efficacy of a Coping and Parenting Competence-Early Intervention to improve mental well-being in parents of preschool children with special educational needs. In this parallel-group randomised controlled trial, 83 eligible parents were randomly allocated to either a 7-week intervention group (n = 44) or a treatment-as-usual control group (n = 39). Results showed significant improvements in the intervention group for anxiety, stress, and perceived parenting competence after receiving the intervention, with the reduction of anxiety and stress, as well as the enhancement of perceived parenting competence maintained at one-month short-term follow-up. No significant improvements were detected in the control group. Although no direct group-by-time effect was observed for depression, changes in perceived parenting competence were negatively associated with changes in anxiety, stress, and depression. These findings indicate that the intervention effectively enhanced perceived parenting competence and revealed both direct and indirect effects on mental health symptoms, demonstrating its overall effectiveness in improving parents’ mental well-being. Our findings also suggest that perceived parenting competence could be a resilience factor for parental stress in parents of children with special needs. This study was registered retrospectively in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on 6 June 2025 (Registration number: ChiCTR2500103881: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojEN.html?proj=274488).