Exploring Change in Parent-Child Co-Regulation Over Time in Parents and Toddlers with ASD

• In Event: 2-133 - Child Effects on Parenting from Infancy to Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Introduction
Children with ASD have been shown to exhibit deficits in emotion regulation (ER) capabilities (Konstantareas and Stewart, 2006) and are less likely to use adaptive ER strategies than typically developing peers (Jahromi et al., 2012). In light of these deficits, mothers are believed to serve an especially crucial role in facilitating emotion regulation development in their children with ASD (Morris et al., 2011). In a sample of toddlers with ASD, mothers were found to use a range of ER strategies to co-regulate their child’s negativity in a free play interaction (Gulsrud et al., 2012).

Objectives
This study explores the change over time in parent-child co-regulation strategies during a frustration-eliciting task.

Methods
73 toddlers with ASD (24 – 36 months) were randomized to one of two treatment groups as part of a comparative efficacy trial of a parent-mediated social communication intervention (Kasari et al., 2008). Dyads completed a 3-minute distress task modeled upon the Lab-TAB distress task (Goldsmith et al., 1999) at entry and exit. Toddlers were given a locked toy box with keys and encouraged by parents to open the box. Videos of the task were coded by 10-second intervals for presence of nine child ER strategies, classified as either Self-Directed (SD; eg: Distraction) or Other-Directed (OD; eg: Assistance Seeking), and five parent co-regulation strategies. Paired sample T-tests were conducted to determine whether child ER strategies changed over time. Next. linear regressions were conducted to determine whether change in child ER strategies predicted change in parent co-regulation strategies, controlling for the effect of treatment.

Results
Children used an average of 11.74 (SD = 8.8278) SD strategies at entry and 9.12 (SD = 9.094) SD strategies at Exit, showing a statistically significant decrease of 2.62 (SD=8.647, p < 0.05) in SD strategy use over time. Regarding OD strategy use, children used an average of 5.89 (SD = 4.338) OD strategies at entry and 5.32 (SD = 3.555) at exit, a statistically non-significant decrease. Linear regressions revealed that change in children’s use of SD strategies predicted a change in parental co-regulation (β = 0.333, p < 0.05), while change in children’s use of OD strategies did not emerge as a significant predictor. More specifically, children’s increased use of Distraction (eg: off task behavior) predicted decreased parent co-regulation (β = -0.249, p < 0.05), and children’s increased use of Tension Release (eg: crying) predicted increased parent co-regulation (β = 0.311, p < 0.01).

Conclusions
Across a relatively brief intervention period, children showed a decrease in the use of self-directed strategies. This decrease suggests that children are reducing in their use of strategies that may be less adaptive over time, such as Avoidance or Distraction. In addition, change in children’s use of SD strategies predicted an overall increase in parents’ co-regulation strategy use. These findings re-affirm the bi-directional nature of parent-child co-regulation and indicate that parents play an integral role in the ER development of their child with ASD.

Authors

• Amanda Dimachkie, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Amanda Gulsrud, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Connie Kasari, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author