The Effects of Parental Illness and Other Ill Family Members on the Adjustment of Children

Background

This study addresses limitations of prior research that have used group comparison designs to test the effects of parental illness on youth.

Purpose

This study examined differences in adjustment between children of a parent with illness and peers from ‘healthy’ families controlling for the effects of whether a parent or non-parent family member is ill, illness type, demographics and caregiving.

Methods

Based on questionnaire data, groups were derived from a community sample of 2,474 youth (‘healthy’ family, n?=?1768; parental illness, n?=?336; other family member illness, n?=?254; both parental and other family illness, n?=?116).

Results

The presence of any family member with an illness is associated with greater risk of mental health difficulties for youth relative to peers from healthy families. This risk is elevated if the ill family member is a parent and has mental illness or substance misuse.

Conclusions

Serious health problems within a household adversely impact youth adjustment.     

Brief Report: The Effects of Tomatis Sound Therapy on Language in Children with Autism

Due to the myriad of problems associated with autism, parents often consider alternative treatments. The investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of the Tomatis Method on language skills in children with autism utilizing a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. The results indicated that although the majority of the children demonstrated general improvement in language over the course of the study, it did not appear to be related to the treatment condition. The percent change for Group 1 (Placebo/Treatment) for treatment was 17.41%, and placebo was 24.84%. Group 2 (Treatment/Placebo) showed −3.98% change for treatment and 14.15% change for placebo. The results reflect a lack of improvement in language using the Tomatis Method for children with autism.     

The Role of Supported Joint Engagement and Parent Utterances in Language and Social Communication Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study examined associations between three parent–child engagement states and social communication, expressive language, and receptive language at 8 month follow-up, in 63 preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder. We extend the literature on supported joint engagement by dividing this state into higher order (HSJE) and lower order types, with HSJE involving greater reciprocity in toy play. We also examined parents’ follow-in utterances that co-occurred with each state. We found that only HSJE predicts later social communication and expressive language, while object engagement predicts receptive language. HSJE combined with follow-in utterances (HSJE+FI) predicts all three outcomes when controlling for HSJE+FI in other engagement states. When controlling for total HSJE, HSJE+FI is predictive of receptive language.     

Parental Broad Autism Phenotype and the Language Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Father–child and mother–child interactions were examined in order to investigate concurrent associations between three characteristics of parental broad autism phenotype (i.e., aloofness, rigidity, pragmatic language deficits), parental verbal responsiveness, and language skills of children with ASD. Results for mothers indicated that aloofness and rigidity were negatively associated with both child-initiated engagement and child language skills. Maternal aloofness was also negatively correlated with verbal responsiveness to their children, but rigidity was not. Results suggest that the association between aloofness and child language are potentially mediated by maternal use of responsive verbal behaviors. Maternal pragmatic language deficits were not concurrently related to child-initiated engagement or language skills. In contrast, for fathers, aloofness and rigidity were unrelated to child-initiated engagement and language skills. Paternal pragmatic deficits were also not associated with child language, however significant positive associations were found between paternal pragmatic language deficits and frequency of child-initiated engagement. Results are discussed in reference to potential clinical implications and directions for future research.     

Reading Comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Oral Language and Social Functioning

Reading comprehension is an area of difficulty for many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). According to the Simple View of Reading, word recognition and oral language are both important determinants of reading comprehension ability. We provide a novel test of this model in 100 adolescents with ASD of varying intellectual ability. Further, we explore whether reading comprehension is additionally influenced by individual differences in social behaviour and social cognition in ASD. Adolescents with ASD aged 14–16 years completed assessments indexing word recognition, oral language, reading comprehension, social behaviour and social cognition. Regression analyses show that both word recognition and oral language explain unique variance in reading comprehension. Further, measures of social behaviour and social cognition predict reading comprehension after controlling for the variance explained by word recognition and oral language. This indicates that word recognition, oral language and social impairments may constrain reading comprehension in ASD.     

Brief Report: Parental Child-Directed Speech as a Predictor of Receptive Language in Children with Autism Symptomatology

Facilitative linguistic input directly connected to children’s interest and focus of attention has become a recommended component of interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This longitudinal correlational study used two assessment time points and examined the association between parental undemanding topic-continuing talk related to the child’s attentional focus (i.e., follow-in comments) and later receptive language for 37 parent–child dyads with their young (mean = 21 months, range 15–24 months) children with autism symptomology. The frequency of parental follow-in comments positively predicted later receptive language after considering children’s joint attention skills and previous receptive language abilities.     

The Effects of Social Interactive Training on Early Social Communicative Skills of Children with Autism

Growing attention has been directed at the relation between early social communicative skills of children with autism and subsequent development of these children's social and communicative functioning. We reviewed 16 empirical studies that investigated the effects of social interactive interventions designed to increase early social communicative skills of young children with autism by increasing their role as initiator of social interactions. To identify factors relating to treatment effectiveness, we analyzed studies in relation to participant characteristics, settings, target behaviors, training methods, and results. To determine durability of treatment, we analyzed generalization effects across persons, settings, stimuli, and time. Increases were found for social and affective behaviors, nonverbal and verbal communication, eye contact, joint attention, and imitative play. Limited generalization or maintenance of target behaviors was reported. Findings are discussed in relation to critical variables that may relate to treatment effectiveness in future research and practice efforts.     

The Role of Theory of Mind on Social Information Processing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Mediation Analysis

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show significant impairments in social skills and theory of mind (ToM). The aim of this study was to evaluate ToM and social information processing abilities in 52 children with ASD compared to 55 typically developing (TD) children. A mediation analysis evaluated whether social information processing abilities can be mediated by ToM competences. In our results, children with autism showed a deficit in social skills and ToM components. The innovative results of our study applying mediation analysis demonstrate that ToM plays a key role in the development of social abilities, and the lack of ToM competences in children with autism impairs their competent social behavior.     

Married With Children: The Influence of Parental Status and Gender on Ambulatory Blood Pressure

Background  

Although there is substantial evidence that social relationships and marriage may influence both psychological and physical health, little is known about the influence of children.     

Feelings of Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction in Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Birth Order and Perceived Social Support

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - Loneliness has been associated with several adverse psychosocial outcomes in childhood and adolescence. The present study aimed to investigate...     

Social and Non-Social Behavioral Inhibition in Preschool-Age Children: Differential Associations with Parent-Reports of Temperament and Anxiety

Behavioral inhibition (BI) has generally been treated as a unitary construct and assessed by combining ratings of fear, vigilance, and avoidance to both novel social and non-social stimuli. However, there is evidence suggesting that BI in social contexts is not correlated with BI in non-social contexts. The present study examined the distinction between social and non-social BI in a community sample of 559 preschool-age children using a laboratory assessment of child temperament, a diagnostic interview, and parent-completed questionnaires. Social and non-social BI were not significantly correlated and exhibited distinct patterns of associations with parent reports of temperament and anxiety symptoms. This study suggests that BI is heterogeneous, and that distinguishing between different forms of BI may help account for the variation in trajectories and outcomes exhibited by high BI children.     

Effects of Circumscribed Interests on the Social Behaviors of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study compared the effects of circumscribed interests (CI) to less preferred (LP) tangible stimuli on the social behaviors of three children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Based on single subject design methodology, the CI experimental sessions resulted in longer durations of target-child initiated social interactions in comparison to LP sessions. In addition, latency of participant’s initial social bids to peers was decreased when CI were present. The results suggest that embedding CI into dyadic play situations with typical peers can be used to increase the social behavior children with ASD direct toward typical peers. Future research should examine the specific environmental conditions that must be present in naturalistic settings to facilitate generalization of social behavior.