The Relation Between Parental Expressed Emotion and Externalizing Behaviors in Children and Adolescents With an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The current study examined the relation between parental expressed emotion, a construct of the quality and amount of emotion expressed within the family environment that is a well-established predictor of symptom relapse in various psychological disorders, with externalizing behaviors in children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants were 111 parents of 6- to 18-year-old children and adolescents with an ASD who completed questionnaires measuring family environment variables (including parental expressed emotion, parental distress, and parenting practices), as well as assessing their child’s autism symptoms and emotional and behavioral functioning. Results of regression analyses indicated that parental expressed emotion, specifically criticism/hostility, accounted for 18.7% of the variance in child externalizing behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographic control variables, overinvolvement, parental distress, and parenting practices. Findings highlight a possible point of intervention for parents of children and adolescents with an ASD with concomitant externalizing behaviors.

The Association Between Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Psychological Distress in Their Parents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Although coping mechanisms showed significant relationships with PS, child EBP retained a significant association, suggesting it has an independent effect. On the other hand, when parent perception of their own parenting was present in the models, the relationship of PS and parent MHP with child EBP became non-significant in three (Bader et al 2015 ; Falk et al 2014 ; Hastings and Brown 2002 ) out of four studies. Only in the largest study did both child EBP and parent perception of their own parenting both appear to contribute significantly to parent MHP (Suzuki et al 2015 ).…”

“…Several studies report the PS-EBP relationship to remain significant despite accounting for ASD severity, which itself was not related to the dependent variable (Giovagnoli et al 2015 ; Hastings et al 2005 ; Manning et al 2011 ; McStay et al 2014a ; Weiss et al 2015 ; Zaidman-Zait et al 2017 ). However, three studies found no significant PS-EBP relationship whilst accounting for ASD severity (Bader et al 2015 ; Falk et al 2014 ; Firth and Dryer 2013 ). In these studies, child ASD severity did significantly account for variance in the DV.…”

“…We found some evidence that this heterogeneity may be driven at least in part by the similarity in content between child EBP questionnaires, and PS questionnaires that include ratings of child behavior. Several research groups have chosen to use subscales of PS questionnaires that minimize overlap between the concepts of child behavior problems themselves, and parent perception of the stress related to them (Bader et al 2015 ; Simonoff et al 2013 ; Zaidman-Zait et al 2014 ). This approach may be advantageous in future research.…”

Role of Parent Affective Behaviors and Child Negativity in Behavioral Functioning for Young Children With Developmental Delays

“…Negative parenting behaviors have been connected to behavioral outcomes for children with DD, and appear more salient than positive behaviors in shaping long-term behavioral functioning. Among children with DD, parent’s use of criticism and hostility, and intrusiveness are associated with greater externalizing behaviors (e.g., argumentation, disobedience, aggression; Bader, Barry, & Hann, 2015; Hastings, Daley, Burns, & Beck, 2006) as well as poor social functioning (Bader & Barry, 2014; Greenberg, Seltzer, Hong, & Orsmond, 2006). Recent large-scale ( N = 123,922) research suggests that maternal depression and bipolar disorder, mental health conditions, which may make parents prone to negative displays toward their children, increases risk of intellectual disability (Wang, McDermott, Mann, & Hardin, 2016).…”

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mother’s Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Training on Externalizing Disorder and Self-efficacy of Aggressive Children

“…This method helps individuals to return to the equilibrium that existed before experiencing negative emotions (Kim et al, 2009). Various studies have shown the effectiveness of MBCT for mothers on reducing child aggression (Bader, Barry, & Hann, 2015;Parent, McKee, Rough, & Forehand, 2016;Corthorn, 2018). Hamidian, Amiri, Pour Abolghasemi, Naziri, and Mousavi Nasab (2016) found in a study that MBCT and medication had a more significant role in reducing anger and aggressive behaviors compared with mere medication.…”