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The Role of Family Accommodation of RRBs in Disruptive Behavior Among Children with Autism

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Abstract

Family accommodation refers to changes in families' behavior aimed at reducing children’s psychopathology-related distress (Shimshoni et al. in Indian J ournal of Psychiatry 61(Suppl 1):S93–S103, 2019). Family accommodation of RRBs occurs frequently in families of children with autism, is linked to greater symptom severity (Feldman et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 49(9):3602–3610, 2019), and is unexplored in the context of disruptive behaviors. This study examined child and parent factors associated with disruptive behavior in children with autism. Parents (N = 90; age 2–9 years) reported on children’s autism symptomatology, adaptive functioning, and disruptive behavior, alongside parenting stress and family accommodation of RRBs. Such accommodation contributed significantly to predicting disruptive behavior. These findings indicate that parent behavior is associated with the expression of disruptive behavior in this sample, highlighting potential intervention targets for children with autism.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the families who participated in the study and the team of students who worked tirelessly to collect and organize the data. We are appreciative of the Joseph Levy Foundation for their financial support. All authors report no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seymour Fox School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 9190501, Jerusalem, Israel

    Judah Koller, Tamar David & Noa Bar

  2. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Eli R. Lebowitz

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  1. Judah Koller
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  2. Tamar David
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  3. Noa Bar
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  4. Eli R. Lebowitz
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Contributions

JK and EL developed the theoretical framework. JK conceptualized the study, oversaw data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation. TD and NB conceptualized the research questions and were responsible for data analysis and manuscript preparation. EL provided guidance regarding research questions, data analysis, and conceptualization of results. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Judah Koller.

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Koller, J., David, T., Bar, N. et al. The Role of Family Accommodation of RRBs in Disruptive Behavior Among Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 2505–2511 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05163-w

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