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Emotion Regulation Strategies in Preschoolers with Autism: Associations with Parent Quality of Life and Family Functioning

  • S.I. : Parenting Children with ASD
  • Published:
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Abstract

Children with autism experience challenges with emotion regulation. It is unclear how children’s management of their emotions is associated with their family’s quality of life. Forty-three preschoolers with autism and 28 typically developing preschoolers were coded on emotion regulation strategies used during low-level stress tasks. Parents reported on their quality of life and family functioning, and their child’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors. More externalizing behaviors across groups and use of two emotion regulation strategies (self-soothing, deep exhalation) in the autism group predicted lower family quality of life. Findings suggest that children’s emotional outbursts and reduced use of passive comforting strategies are linked to lower family quality of life.

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Notes

  1. For the family functioning regression model, the last step, emotion regulation strategies, was marginally significant (p = 0.08).

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Acknowledgments

First and foremost, the authors would like to thank the families who took part in this study. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the students who worked on the testing, behavioural coding and data entry aspects of the project (in alphabetical order): Erin Battersby, Luke Bolt, Daniela Calafiore, Lacey Chetcuti, Siobhan Ede, Samantha Galea, Ellen Hall, Siobhan Korbut, Alice Maier, Jacqueline Maya, Natalie Mizzi, Anushka Phal, Imogen Redden, Ensu Sahin, Danielle Smith, Yvonne Tran, Jessica Tsoutsoulis, Pinar Uluer and Jennifer Vong. This work was supported by the Pierce Armstrong Foundation.

Author Contributions

HJN conceived of the study and design, with guidance by DH, SB and CD. HJN and DH conducted the research testing and oversaw the behavioral coding of emotion regulation strategies. All authors were involved in the interpretation of the data. HJN and CHT drafted the manuscript, and DH, SB and CD revised it critically. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Heather Joy Nuske

  2. Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Heather Joy Nuske, Darren Hedley & Cheryl Dissanayake

  3. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Chen Hsiang Tseng

  4. Section Clinical Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sander Begeer

Authors
  1. Heather Joy Nuske
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  2. Darren Hedley
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  3. Chen Hsiang Tseng
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  4. Sander Begeer
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  5. Cheryl Dissanayake
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather Joy Nuske.

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Conflict of interest

Heather Nuske has received research funding from Pierce Armstrong Foundation. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was taken by human participants who were recruited into the study.

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Nuske, H.J., Hedley, D., Tseng, C.H. et al. Emotion Regulation Strategies in Preschoolers with Autism: Associations with Parent Quality of Life and Family Functioning. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 1287–1300 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3391-y

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