Poster #68 - Parent-Child Cortisol Coregulation in Children with Autism: Effects of Parenting Stress and Unresponsive Parenting

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

Physiological coregulation is an important developmental hallmark, providing children an external regulation to form biological rhythm (Feldman et al., 2011) and facilitating affectional tie between parent-child dyads (Barrett & Fleming, 2011). According to the biobehavioral theory (Feldman, 2012), the patterns of the hormone cortisol, secreted by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, may be coregulated between parent and child. However, majorities of studies only assessed cortisol coregulation under acute stress (e.g., Hibel et al., 2015), few focused on the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Given that the diurnal cortisol serves as a reliable marker of HPA functioning and the maladaptive patterns of it in childhood predicts later psychopathology (e.g., Hastings et al., 2011), it is important to understand the coregulation of parent-child diurnal cortisol patterns especially in at-risk samples such as children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Indeed, children with ASD show profound difficulties in handling unfamiliar situations in daily routines (Mazefsky et al., 2013), which may result in lower flexibility and greater stress that challenges their HPA functioning. Additionally, although limited evidence exists, heightened parenting stress (Padden & James, 2017) and unresponsive parenting behaviors (Saxbe et al., 2017) are potential risk factors that may undermine the parent-child cortisol coregulation. The current study addressed the moderating roles of parenting stress and unresponsive parenting on parent-child coregulation of diurnal cortisol in families of children with ASD.
62 Chinese parent-child dyads participated in the study. The ASD group included 31 children (27 boys; M = 7.73, SD = 1.31) diagnosed with ASD following DSM-IV criteria. The diagnosis was confirmed by CARS-2. The control group included 31 typically developing children (15 boys; M = 10.31, SD = 1.89) who were matched for nonverbal IQ measured by WASI-IV. Parents and children were invited to provide 12 saliva samples each, 6 on each day for two consecutive days at immediately upon waking, 15 mins, 30 mins, and 1h post-waking, noon, and bedtime. Parenting stress was measured via Parenting Stress Inventory-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995) and unresponsive parenting behaviors were assessed using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fables et al., 1990).
Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was performed. At level 1, children’s diurnal cortisol levels served as the dependent variable. The linear and quadratic time variables and parents’ cortisol at the same time point (b) which presented as coregulation were included as predictors. At level 2, parenting stress and unresponsive parenting variables (γ) were grand-mean centered and were included separately. Besides, the group, child age and gender, and parent gender were entered as covariates. The HLM results demonstrated that parents’ cortisol levels significantly coregulated with their children’s (b = .20, t (49) = 2.76, p < .01). Additionally, parenting stress (γ = -.01, p < .01) and unsupportive parenting behaviors (γ = -.06, p < .05) were both negatively correlated with cortisol coregulation. No significant group differences were found. These results indicated that the elevated levels of parenting stress and unresponsive parenting behaviors deteriorated the patterns of parent-child diurnal cortisol coregulation, for both ASD and normally developing children.

Authors

• Hui Wang, Beijing Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zhuo Rachel Han, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Li Yi, Peking University
  Non-Presenting Author