ERIC Number: EJ1221831
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0162-3257
EISSN: N/A
Family Emotional Climate and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Hickey, Emily J.; Nix, Robert L.; Hartley, Sigan L.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, v49 n8 p3244-3256 Aug 2019
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.
Descriptors: Family Environment, Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Correlation, Mothers, Fathers, Speech Communication, Educational Attainment, Higher Education, Criticism, Parent Child Relationship, Emotional Response, Affective Behavior, Predictor Variables, Social Class, Race, Genetics, Behavior Problems, Intervention, Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health (DHHS/NIH); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01MH099190; U54HD090256