Proof of Concept: A Brief Psycho-Educational Training Program to Increase the Use of Positive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Alexandra Zaharia,Katharina Noir-Kahlo,Andrea C Samson,David Sander,Nicolas Bressoud,Daniel Dukes

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705937

Abstract

Attenuated positive emotions and difficulties in regulating emotions are frequently observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and are linked to increased risk of affective disorders, problematic behaviors, and impaired socio-emotional functioning. As such, interventions specifically focused on positive emotion regulation (ER) skills could be very valuable for individuals with ASD, their caregivers, and therapists. However, the field of positive ER in ASD is under-researched. The present study aimed at testing the practical potential and the preliminary effects of a brief novel psycho-educational training program on positive ER for individuals with ASD. Thirty male participants with ASD (aged 10–35years; Ntraining=14, Nwaitlist=16) underwent a three-session program on the use of adaptive positive ER strategies (i.e., attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Participants rated the program as easy to understand, interesting, pleasant, and likable. No dropouts or adverse effects were observed. The training group showed a significant increase in the self-reported use of the ER strategies compared to the waitlist group. The increase in the use of ER strategies maintained up to 7 weeks in the overall sample. Having reached high satisfaction rates and the intended effects in this proof of concept study, this novel program represents a promising tool to support ER. Future research should next investigate the efficacy of the intervention on day-to-day emotional experience and wellbeing.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT02898298

Highlights

Emotion-related difficulties, such as affective disorders and problematic behaviors, are highly prevalent in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and persist across the life span (Gotham et al, 2015; Mikita et al, 2015; Patel et al, 2017; Hollocks et al, 2018; Hudson et al, 2019)
Emotion regulation (ER) plays a key role in socio-emotional development, and the few interventions designed to strengthen this skill have been beneficial for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Reyes et al, 2019; Sandbank et al, 2020)
Inspired by an apparent increasing awareness among researchers and clinicians regarding the need to attenuate ER impairments in individuals with ASD and the few but beneficial interventions, this study describes the development and the first evidence of a training program to increase adaptive positive ER strategies, i.e., strategies that aim at upregulating positive emotions

Summary

Introduction

Emotion-related difficulties, such as affective disorders (anxiety and depression) and problematic behaviors (tantrums and aggression), are highly prevalent in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and persist across the life span (Gotham et al, 2015; Mikita et al, 2015; Patel et al, 2017; Hollocks et al, 2018; Hudson et al, 2019). Response modulation strategies occur after the activation of the emotional response and directly impact the physiological, behavioral, or experiential component of the emotion (for a review, see Quoidbach et al, 2015)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion