Abstract
Research on emergent autism spectrum disorder increasingly uses observational measures to investigate parenting of young children with or at elevated likelihood of autism. This systematic review analysed 21 papers narratively, including 13 unique ‘coding approaches’ and 63 parenting constructs. Through a comprehensive consensus decision-making process, parenting constructs were classified under nine overarching categories, identified based on prior categorisation: Warmth, Responsiveness, Scaffolding, Proactive Control, Intrusiveness, Negativity, Dyadic, Other, Multiple. We found a large heterogeneity in observational measures, and descriptions of parenting constructs lacked uniformity. The complex categorisation process demonstrates the need for a solid conceptual framework that can inform theory and practice. This review provides a first step, but further research should investigate applicability among young children of different ages.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our colleague E. O’Nions for her contribution to the categorisation process.
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M. Madarevic receives funding from the Marguerite-Marie Delacroix foundation. M. Madarevic, P. Warreyn and I. Noens are part of the Tracking Infants At Risk for Autism (TIARA) study, that is funded by FWO (project number S001517N).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Melinda Madarevic, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Madarevic, M., Van Leeuwen, K., Warreyn, P. et al. Conceptualisation of Parenting in Research on Young Children with or at Elevated Likelihood of Autism: a Systematic Review of Observational Measures. Rev J Autism Dev Disord 8, 321–333 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-020-00217-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-020-00217-8