Emotion Awareness and Perceptions of Parental Response to Emotion in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Development and Preliminary Testing of the Qualitative Emotion Interview

Abstract

Background

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are a set of neurodevelopmental differences associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol. Emotion regulation is a core challenge often seen in FASD. The ability to recognize and label emotional experiences, as well as parent response to emotion, is important in the development of emotion regulation, yet little is known about these constructs in young children with FASD.

Aims

To develop and pilot the Qualitative Emotion Interview (QEI), a novel interview-based measure assessing children’s experiences and understanding of their own emotions and their caregivers’ responses to their emotions, in young children with FASD.

Methods

Participants were 53 children with FASD aged 4–12 and their caregivers. Data came from the baseline timepoint of a larger intervention trial. Children completed a QEI; caregivers completed interview, self-report, and observation-based measures of parent emotion socialization. Preliminary qualitative themes emerged during coding. Correlational analyses examined relationships between parent-report measures and coded QEIs.

Results

The QEI coding manual was successfully developed and piloted, resulting in two subscales: emotion awareness and parent response. Qualitative results indicated children with FASD had difficulty recognizing and expressing their emotional experiences and their caregivers’ responses. Quantitative analyses indicated older children had greater awareness of their emotions. Additionally, greater emotion awareness and higher satisfaction with caregiver response to emotion were generally associated with more positive caregiver emotion socialization behaviors.

Conclusions

The QEI is a promising method of understanding the emotional experiences of young children with FASD, and may be useful for other populations.