Family Emotional Climate and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

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 analyses 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 (BAP) and child emotional and behavioral problems were associated with emotional climate class membership. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Relationships Between Household Income and Functional Independent Behavior for Children With Autism

“…Exploration of relationships between additional household variables and functional independence was not possible with the current sample due to the lack of variables capturing family structure, and household context. Family and household context such as parent stress, family emotional climate, household chaos, routines, or parent wellbeing has been connected to behavioral outcomes for children with and without ASD (Adams et al, 2019;Greenlee et al, 2018;Hall & Graff, 2012;Hickey et al, 2019;Marsh et al, 2020). Future research should expand on these preliminary findings to further characterize the associations identified and explore how additional factors may be related to measures of income and functional independence outcomes for children with ASD.…”

Marital satisfaction, parenting styles, and child outcomes in families of autistic children

“…We did not find evidence of between‐parent associations (partner effects). Other studies using APIM analysis in families of autistic children have found partner effects including lower marital satisfaction in mothers being associated with higher stress (García‐López et al, 2016), and lower warmth toward the child by fathers (Hickey et al, 2019). It could be that the global measure of marital satisfaction used in the present study was too broad to pick up on partner effects.…”

“…Although research is scant, there is evidence of between‐parent associations between the marital relationship and parenting experiences in the context of autism. Specifically, lower marital satisfaction in mothers was found to be associated with higher parenting stress (García‐López et al, 2016) and lower warmth toward the child (Hickey et al, 2019) in fathers, within families.…”

Family and Developmental History of Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Importance of the Clinical Diagnostic Interview for Diagnosis in Adolescents. An Explorative Study

“…This is in line with the ASD literature, as individual relationships in families of adolescents with ASD were not described as markedly impaired. However, families reported lower functioning of the family and decreased quality of life ( 54 , 55 ). We found in our data that mothers of adolescents with ASD reported less pregnancies and less childbirths ( Table 3A ).…”