Dataset Information

Mother-father physiological synchrony during conflict and moderation by parenting challenges: Findings from parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Despite robust evidence in the broader family process literature for within-couple associations between romantic partners' physiological responding, this linkage has not been tested directly among parents raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Explicit attention to these parents is warranted on the basis of the established family-wide challenges associated with the persistent emotional, functional, and behavior impairments typically observed in children with ASD (see Karst & Van Hecke, 2012). The first purpose of this study is to extend examination of within-couple associations between electrodermal activity (EDA) to mothers and fathers of children with ASD. The second purpose is to test 2 potential moderators of EDA synchrony reflecting heightened challenges among parents of children with ASD, namely parenting as an observed conflict topic and global parenting stress.

Method

Both parents wore wrist sensors that captured continuous EDA during a recorded marital conflict interaction. Trained coders provided ratings of emotional intensity and conflict topics, including whether the topic of parenting was discussed. Parents reported their global level of parenting stress. Dyadic multilevel modeling was used to test our hypotheses and accounted for interaction factors (e.g., movement data, emotional intensity).

Results

Findings identified significant positive associations between parents' EDA. One moderator result emerged; specifically, father EDA was a stronger predictor of mother EDA when parenting was discussed as a conflict topic.

Conclusion

This study extends evidence of within-couple physiological linkage to parents raising a child with ASD and provides a foundation for future research examining the family-wide implications of this linkage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Papp LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7887004 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Mother-father physiological synchrony during conflict and moderation by parenting challenges: Findings from parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Papp Lauren M LM Drastal Kimberly C KC Lorang Emily K EK Hartley Sigan L SL

Families, systems & health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare 20200827 4

<h4>Introduction</h4>Despite robust evidence in the broader family process literature for within-couple associations between romantic partners' physiological responding, this linkage has not been tested directly among parents raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Explicit attention to these parents is warranted on the basis of the established family-wide challenges associated with the persistent emotional, functional, and behavior impairments typically observed in children with AS ...[more]

PMID: 32853000

Similar Datasets

Project description:Infantile Anorexia (IA), defined by the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood Revised (DC: 0-3R, Zero To Three, 2005), occurs when the child (a) refuses to eat adequate amounts of food for at least 1 month, and shows growth deficiency, (b) does not communicate hunger and lacks interest in food, and (c) the child's food refusal does not follow a traumatic event and is not due to an underlying medical illness. IA usually emerges during the transition to self-feeding, when the child issues of autonomy are played out daily in the feeding situation. Studies evidence that the feeding interactions between children with IA and their mothers are characterized by low reciprocity, greater interactional conflict and negative affects (Chatoor et al., 2000; Ammaniti et al., 2010, 2012). Moreover, these studies pointed out that maternal depression and eating disorders are frequently associated with IA (Cooper et al., 2004; Ammaniti et al., 2010; Lucarelli et al., 2013). To date, research has focused almost exclusively on the mother-child dyad, while fathers' involvement, co-parental and family interactions are poorly studied. The current study is a pilot research that investigated mother-father-child triadic interactions, during feeding and play, in families with children diagnosed with IA, in comparison to families with normally developing children. Until now, at the study participated N = 10 families (five with a child with IA diagnosis and five with lack of child's IA diagnosis, matched for child's age and gender). The parents-child triadic interactions were assessed in feeding and play contexts using the Lausanne Trilogue Play (Fivaz-Depeursinge and Corboz-Warnery, 1999), adapted to observe father-mother-infant primary triangle in the feeding context, compared to the play context (Lucarelli et al., 2012). Families of the IA-group showed difficulties in expressing and sharing pleasure and positive affects, and in structuring a predictable and flexible context. Children showed little autonomy and difficulty in being actively engaged and tune with parents. Dysfunctional family interactions are a critical issue for IA that affects co-parental and family subsystems, stressing the importance of an articulated diagnostic assessment in order to target effective treatment approaches.

Project description:BACKGROUND:It is important for healthcare providers to pay attention to parents' rearing style and children's physical symptoms to promote a healthy quality of life among children with atopic dermatitis. We aimed to identify effects of parenting stress and co-parenting on marital conflict among parents of children with atopic dermatitis. METHODS:Participants were 161 fathers and 161 mothers raising seven-year-old children treated for atopic dermatitis. To confirm the effects of parenting stress and co-parenting on marital conflict, the "actor-partner interdependence mediation model" was used. To verify goodness-of-fit, maximum likelihood method was used, and a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to confirm the validity of latent variables for model analysis. RESULTS:Fathers' parenting stress had actor (??=?-.46, p <?.001) and partner (??=?-.22, p <?.001) effects on co-parenting, and mothers' parenting stress had actor (??=?-.20, p <?.001) and partner (??=?-.36, p <?.001) effects on co-parenting. Fathers' parenting stress only had an actor effect on marital conflict (??=?.32, p?<?.001). Father's co-parenting had actor (??=?-.29, p?<?.001) and partner (??=?-.22, p?<?.001) effects on marital conflict, and mothers' co-parenting had actor (??=?-.39, p?<?.001) and partner (??=?-.19, p?<?.001) effects on marital conflict. There were significant differences between the two groups concerning three path coefficients: fathers' parenting stress affected fathers' marital conflict, fathers' co-parenting affected fathers' marital conflict, and mothers' co-parenting affected fathers' marital conflict. CONCLUSIONS:It is vital for healthcare providers to seek ways to reduce the marital conflicts of parents of children with atopic dermatitis, including further examination of the role of co-parenting, to address children's physical symptoms and promote their health. Our findings inform management and intervention programs for the families of children with atopic dermatitis.

Dataset Information

Mother-father physiological synchrony during conflict and moderation by parenting challenges: Findings from parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Introduction

Method

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Mother-father physiological synchrony during conflict and moderation by parenting challenges: Findings from parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets