Family Emotional Climate and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 2019

Emily J Hickey, and Robert L Nix, and Sigan L Hartley
Human Development and Family Studies Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA. emily.hickey@bmc.org.

Little research has examined family emotional climate in the context of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of the current study was to determine how the emotional quality of family subsystems (parent-child and parent couple relationships, for both mothers and fathers) combine to create various classes of family emotional climate and to identify predictors of class membership in 148 families of children with ASD. The emotional quality of family subsystems was assessed using Five Minute Speech Samples from mothers and fathers. In total, 148 families of children with ASD (86% male) aged 6-13 years were included in analyses. About one-third of parents did not have a college degree and more than two-thirds were of non-Hispanic White origin. Latent class analysis revealed that 43% of the sample was characterized by high levels of warmth and low levels of criticism in both the parent-child and parent couple relationships; 12% of the sample was characterized by low warmth and high criticism in both sets of relationships; and the rest of the sample was divided among three additional classes of emotional climate characterized by different configurations of warmth and criticism across both sets of relationships. Parent level of broader autism phenotype and child emotional and behavioral problems were associated with emotional climate class membership. Implications for interventions are discussed.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D010287 Parent-Child Relations The interactions between parent and child. Parent-Offspring Interaction,Parent Child Relationship,Parent-Child Relationship,Interaction, Parent-Offspring,Parent Child Relations,Parent Child Relationships,Parent Offspring Interaction,Parent-Child Relation,Parent-Child Relationships,Parent-Offspring Interactions,Relation, Parent-Child,Relationship, Parent Child,Relationship, Parent-Child
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D002675 Child, Preschool A child between the ages of 2 and 5. Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D004644 Emotions Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties. Feelings,Regret,Emotion,Feeling,Regrets
D005190 Family A social group consisting of parents or parent substitutes and children. Family Life Cycles,Family Members,Family Life Cycle,Family Research,Filiation,Kinship Networks,Relatives,Families,Family Member,Kinship Network,Life Cycle, Family,Life Cycles, Family,Network, Kinship,Networks, Kinship,Research, Family
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000066553 Problem Behavior Troublesome or disruptive behavioral displays. Behavioral Problem,Disruptive Behavior,Dysfunctional Behavior, Psychology,Behavior, Disruptive,Behavior, Problem,Behavior, Psychology Dysfunctional,Behavioral Problems,Behaviors, Disruptive,Behaviors, Problem,Behaviors, Psychology Dysfunctional,Disruptive Behaviors,Dysfunctional Behaviors, Psychology,Problem Behaviors,Problem, Behavioral,Problems, Behavioral,Psychology Dysfunctional Behavior,Psychology Dysfunctional Behaviors

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