Emotion Socialization and Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Role of Disability Severity and Parental Attributions in Predicting Parents\u27 Emotional Responses

The importance of parents in emotion socialization is highly established among children who are typically developing (Sheffield Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Myers, & Robinson, 2007). Child characteristics, such as child temperament and emotional reactivity, have been found to influence parenting (Bell & Chapman, 1986; Belsky, 1984). However, little is known about the emotion socialization practices of parents of children with special needs and how disability severity may influence these practices. Participants included 68 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (ages 3-11). Parents reported on three dimensions, using three questionnaires: disability severity via the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 2nd edition (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Balla, 2005); emotion socialization practices via the Coping with Children\u27s Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Bernzweig, 1990); parents\u27 attributions for children\u27s emotional expressions using the Parents\u27 Attributions for Children\u27s Behavior Questionnaire. Using regression, the relationship between autism severity, parents\u27 attributions for children\u27s emotional expressions, and parents\u27 emotion socialization practices was examined. Findings suggest that severity of ASD does not appear to influence parents\u27 use of supportive emotion socialization practices. However, autism severity does influence parents\u27 attributions for children\u27s emotional expressions, with lower autism severity increasing parents\u27 views of their children\u27s negative emotionality as unstable and modifiable. The results of this study have implications for parenting children with ASD, early intervention, and future research in this area