The Relation of Parental Emotion Regulation to Child Autism Spectrum Disorder Core Symptoms: The Moderating Role of Child Cardiac Vagal Activity

Frontiers in Psychology

Hui Wang¹  Zhuo Rachel Han¹  Yannan Hu¹  Xiaoyi Hu²  Shuyuan Feng³  Qiandong Wang³  Li Yi³ 

[1] Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China;Department of Special Education, Education Research Center for Children with ASD, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China;School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China;

关键词: autism spectrum disorders;    emotion regulation;    core symptoms;    cardiac vagal activity;    heart rate variability;    parenting;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02480

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This study investigated the role of parental emotion regulation (ER) on children’s core symptoms in families of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in middle childhood; the study also explored whether children’s physiological ER functioning served as a risk or protective factor with respect to parental relationships. Thirty-one Chinese children with ASD (age 6–11) and their primary caregivers participated in this study. Parental ER and child ASD symptoms were collected via questionnaires from parents. Child cardiac vagal activity (derived from heart rate variability) was measured at rest and during a parent-child interaction task. Using moderation analyses, the results showed that parental ER was not directly associated with children’s core ASD symptoms; rather, it interacted significantly with children’s resting cardiac vagal activity, but not task-related changes of cardiac vagal activity, to exert an impact on children’s core ASD symptoms. Specifically, our findings suggested that parents’ difficulties with their own ER significantly impacted their children’s core ASD symptoms only for the children who showed blunted resting cardiac vagal activity. Implications for the future measurement of ER in the family context and future directions for intervention are discussed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown