Poster #46 - Communication, emotion regulation, and victimization in adolescents with Down syndrome

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Developmental Disabilities

Integrative Statement

Down Syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic cause of Intellectual Disability (ID); there are approximately 83,000 children and adolescents with DS living in the United States (CDC, 2002). DS has a wide range of impacts, including distinctive facial characteristics, mild to moderate intellectual disability, and expressive language and communication difficulties (NDSS, 2012). Children and adolescents with disabilities are at a significantly higher risk to experience victimization (Fink, Deighton, Humphrey, & Wolpert, 2015), however the peer relationships of youth with DS have been relatively ignored.

To address this gap in the research literature, the current study examined how communication and emotional regulation problems may predict to peer victimization in a sample of DS adolescents. Among typically developing (TD) adolescents the relationship between communication, emotion regulation (ER), and victimization have been well-established (Goldeski, et al., 2015). Those with poorer ER tend to have poorer social experiences and are more victimized (Garner & Hinton, 2010). Similarly, those with ER problems, tend to have poorer peer relationships and are victimized more than peers with better ER abilities (Gulay, 2011; Conti-Ramsden & Bottling, 2004). Additionally, youth with language and/or communicative disorders, like stuttering, tend to be more victimized (Hugh-Jones, 1999). Thus, the current study investigated the relationship between these variables in adolescents with DS. It was hypothesized that communication abilities would negatively predict both ER problems and victimization, and that ER problems would be positively related to victimization. Additionally, it was hypothesized that ER problems would mediate the relationship between communicative abilities and peer victimization.

Participants were 23 adolescents with Down syndrome between the ages of 11 and 18 years (56% female; 91% Caucasian), with an average mental age equivalent of 5.29 years based on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. All adolescents were attending school at the time of assessments. Adolescents completed the Children’s Social Experience Questionnaire (Crick & Gropeter, 1996) to measure victimization, along with measures of communication including the Pragmatic Judgment Test of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language, 2nd edition (Carrow-Woolfolk, 2017), the Narrative Language Task (Abbeduto, Benson, Short, & Dolish, 1995), and a conversation sample based on ADOS-2 prompts. A parent or guardian completed the ER scale of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function 2nd edition (Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2015).

Bivariate correlational analyses revealed that pragmatic language ability was positively related to ER problems (r = -.422, p < .05). Additionally, all communication measures were negatively to victimization (r’s > -.455, p < .05). However, ER problems was not significantly related to victimization (r = -.022, p > .05), thus the full mediation model was not successful.

These results suggest that communication is a strong predictor of victimization in youth with DS, whereas the ER abilities of youth with DS is not. These findings contrast research with TD adolescents, where ER seems be a strong predictor of peer victimization. Overall, these results suggest that variation in communicative abilities in adolescents with DS may strongly affect their peer experiences.

Authors

• Jenna Reardanz, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Frances Conners, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author