University of California, Davis, USA.
University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Autism. 2021 Nov;25(8):2254-2264. doi: 10.1177/13623613211015001. Epub 2021 Jun 8.
Children with autism spectrum disorder sometimes have challenges with regulating their negative emotions. These difficulties can impact children's social outcomes and how well they respond to intervention. We know that caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder can help their children regulate negative emotions in a process known as co-regulation, but not much is known about how child and caregiver strategy use impacts children's negativity in real time. In this study, 71 caregivers of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder were asked to encourage their child to unlock a locked toy box, a task which is designed to elicit frustration. Video observations of the participants completing the task were used to examine whether specific child and caregiver behaviors increased or decreased the likelihood that the child will become upset. No child strategies were predictive of a decreased likelihood of a child becoming upset, but when children used high-energy behaviors that did not serve a purpose, such as running back and forth, they were more likely to then show signs of being upset a few seconds later. The way that caregivers responded to their child was a potent caregiver predictor of the likelihood of children's negativity, with caregivers' unresponsiveness and proactiveness both emerging as salient predictor of increased likelihood of the child being upset a few moments later. These findings give insight into how children with autism spectrum disorder and their caregiver navigate challenging and frustrating tasks, and have the potential to influence clinical practice by giving an indication off which parent and child behaviors are most effective in reducing children's negativity while interacting with parents and caregivers.
自闭症谱系障碍儿童有时在调节负面情绪方面存在困难。这些困难会影响儿童的社交结果和他们对干预的反应能力。我们知道，自闭症谱系障碍儿童的照顾者可以通过共同调节来帮助他们的孩子调节负面情绪，但对于儿童和照顾者的策略使用如何实时影响儿童的消极情绪，我们知之甚少。在这项研究中，研究人员要求 71 名自闭症谱系障碍幼儿的照顾者鼓励他们的孩子打开一个上锁的玩具箱，这个任务旨在引起挫败感。通过观察参与者完成任务的视频，研究人员考察了特定的儿童和照顾者行为是否会增加或减少孩子变得不安的可能性。没有孩子的策略可以预测孩子变得不安的可能性降低，但当孩子使用没有目的的高能量行为，例如来回奔跑时，他们更有可能在几秒钟后表现出不安的迹象。照顾者对孩子的反应方式是照顾者预测孩子消极情绪可能性的有力指标，照顾者的无反应性和主动性都是孩子更有可能在几秒钟后感到不安的显著预测指标。这些发现深入了解了自闭症谱系障碍儿童及其照顾者如何应对具有挑战性和令人沮丧的任务，并且有可能通过指示哪些父母和孩子的行为在与父母和照顾者互动时最有效地减少孩子的消极情绪来影响临床实践。
