Abstract
To date, only three studies have examined the role of emotion socialization in the emotional functioning of youth with neurodevelopmental disorders. As such, this review article with pilot data sought to provide a call to action and first step in addressing this limited research body. Pilot data was collected with 18 adolescents (Mage = 13.5, SD = 1.6; 70% male) with a neurodevelopmental disorder and their primary caregiver. All adolescents were diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and displayed a range of comorbid disorders: autism spectrum disorder (27.8%), anxiety (66.7%), depression (44.4%), and disruptive behavior disorders (50%). Adolescents and caregivers completed a conflict discussion task while physiological, observational, and self-report measures of emotion socialization and emotional functioning were measured. Observed supportive parent emotion socialization behaviors were significantly associated with more observed adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and decreased observed and adolescent-reported negative affect, whereas non-supportive emotion socialization behaviors were associated with more observed negative affect and less observed adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Our pilot findings support growing research suggesting that adaptive parent emotion socialization practices can help foster less negative emotionality and better emotion regulation in youth with neurodevelopment disorders. We make a call to action for more emotion socialization research focused on youth with neurodevelopmental disorders, and propose four important directions for future research: 1) Research examining emotion socialization behaviors during daily life, 2) Understanding the nuanced role of emotion socialization practices, 3) Considering diversity in emotion socialization practices with clinical populations, and 4) Longitudinal and intervention research studies.
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Notes
Parent and teacher ratings on the Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale (Wolraich et al., 2003) were also examined to confirm ADHD diagnoses; all included adolescents displayed clinical symptom levels based on either parent or teacher report.
A resting baseline was also collected prior to the talking baseline. The pattern of results was the same regardless of if the resting or talking baseline was used. The talking baseline was used as it is most analogous to the conflict discussion task where reactivity was measured.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Katie Behrhorst, Caroline Cusick, Cathrin Green, Alissa McCowan, Kelly O’Connor, Kelcie Willis, and Sandra Yankah for their help with running this study and coding the conflict discussion videos. We are also grateful to the families who participated in this study. Finally, we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Albert Farrell, Joshua Langberg, and the Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development at Virginia Commonwealth University for their advocacy and financial support of this study.
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Study procedures were approved by the Virginia Commonwealth University Institutional Review Board (IRB HM20013904) and conducted in accordance with ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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A total of 20 families completed the baseline assessment visits, with 18 families being eligible for the study. All parents and adolescents provided written consent and assent to participate, respectively at the onset of the baseline visit.
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Breaux, R., Eadeh, HM., Swanson, C.S. et al. Adolescent Emotionality and Emotion Regulation in the Context of Parent Emotion Socialization Among Adolescents with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Call to Action with Pilot Data. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 50, 77–88 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00833-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00833-w