Abstract
Eisenberg, Cumberland and Spinrad (1998) defined Emotion-Related Socialization Behaviours (ERSBs) as parents’ behaviours that tend to promote their children’s emotional and social abilities. They distinguish three types of ERSBs in parents: their reactions to their children’s emotions, their emotion-related conversations and their emotional expressiveness. The two present studies compare these reactions (Study 1) and conversations (Study 2) in parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and parents of typically developing (TD) children. Moreover, by applying several linear regression analyses by the stepwise method, they examined the extent to which such ERSBs vary according to individual characteristics in children and parents. Study 1 included 39 mothers and 31 fathers of ASD children and 39 mothers and 31 fathers of TD children. In Study 2, 29 mothers and 15 fathers of ASD children and 29 mothers and 15 fathers of TD children participated. For the two studies, children were matched for gender and global developmental age. Parents’ ERSBs, their openness to emotional processes and children’s personality were assessed by means of questionnaires. Children’s developmental age was assessed using the Differential Scales of Intellectual Efficiency. For each study, we considered mothers and fathers independently in our analyses, with a view to adapt parenting programmes for each parent if necessary. Results revealed that there are few differences between the two groups of parents in their ERSBs. Regression analyses showed that the variance in ERSBs in parents of ASD children was explained partially by their openness to emotional processes and by their children’s personality. Our results suggest that, although parents of ASD children are good “socializers of emotions”, intervention programs should take account of the fact that their ERSBs vary according to their own emotional abilities and their children’s personality. These studies emphasize the importance of identifying which individual characteristics are protective or risk factors for parent’s behaviours.
Highlights
In daily life, in family and at school, children need to be able to display behaviours in a socially appropriate and adaptive way
The results show that the two groups differed significantly in comforting reactions to negative emotions for both parents: mothers and fathers of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children presented more comforting reactions to negative emotions than mothers and fathers of typically developing (TD) children
Our results indicated that neither mothers of ASD children and of TD children (MTD = 11.14, SDTD = 4.04; MASD = 11.79, SDASD = 8.12; t(41.393)
Summary
In family and at school, children need to be able to display behaviours in a socially appropriate and adaptive way. During the last two decades, several parental programmes have been developed in order to support social adjustment in typically developing (TD) children (e.g., Havighurst, Wilson, Harley, & Prior, 2009) and children with atypical development (e.g., Herbert, Harvey, Roberts, Wichowski, & Lugo-Candelas, 2013; Sanders, Mazzucchelli, & Studman, 2004). These programmes have focused on several parenting variables, and studies have reported distinct improvements in children’s emotional and social development. During emotion-related conversations, mothers and fathers emphasize positive and negative emotions (e.g., Lagattuta & Wellman, 2002; Ontai & Thompson, 2002) and they explain (e.g., Denham & Auerbach, 1995; Garner, Dunsmore, & Southam-Gerrow, 2008) or ask questions about the
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