Date of Award

Summer 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Robert M. Hock

Second Advisor

Jane E. Roberts

Abstract

Parents play a substantial role in their children's emotional regulation (ER) abilities, promoting both adaptive and maladaptive development. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties regulating their emotions, manifesting in externalizing behavioral issues (Mazefsky & White 2014). Though there are many similarities to parents of typically developing (TD) children, parents of children with ASD facilitate their children's ER development (i.e., emotion socialization) in response to unique challenges, often developing resiliency but other times contributing to their children’s dysregulation and behavioral challenges. Using Morris et al.'s (2007) Tripartite Model of Family Impact of Children's Emotion Regulation and Adjustment as a framework, this study adds to the available knowledgebase of parent facilitation of child ER development in ASD. Using a momentary sampling procedure, the current study investigated how parents of children with ASD facilitate child ER through 1.) observation and modeling from parents, 2.) specific parent emotion socialization behaviors, and 3.) the emotional climate of the home and parenting style. After identifying the relative frequencies with which parents use particular ER strategies during challenging child behavior, multilevel models explored the relative influences of the domains of the Tripartite Model on the association between momentary parent stress and behavioral intensity. Finally, the study examined the influence of previous ratings of stress on child behavioral intensity to better understand the cumulative effect of daily parent stress on child behavior. This study is among the first to comprehensively consider parents' emotion facilitation in the context of child behavioral problems, specifically when the child has a diagnosis of ASD. Implications for further supporting children’s emotional development and recommendations for parent involvement are discussed.

Rights

© 2023, Aimee K. Rovane

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