Emotion socialization practices in non-biological parents of children with FASD

Background

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) represent highly prevalent neurodevelopmental and physical differences associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. People with FASD have difficulty with emotion regulation and are often living with non-biological parents. Caregiver emotion socialization practices have been robustly associated with child emotion regulation development in other populations. Yet no research to date has examined the impact of caregiver factors such as age, relationship to child, and trauma on emotion socialization practices in children with FASD. This research is especially important in non-biological parents given complex parenting challenges they may face.

Methods

Eighty-seven children with FASD aged 4–12 and their primary caregivers (all non-biological parents) completed interview, observation, and caregiver-report measures of emotion socialization, caregiver emotion experience, and child emotion regulation and behavior. Emotion socialization included emotion coaching (approaching and encouraging emotion) and emotion dismissing (minimizing and discouraging emotion). Correlational and path analyses were used to understand relationships among caregiver factors and study variables.

Results

Correlations indicated greater emotion coaching was associated with greater emotion dismissing (p = .009). Older caregivers reported less emotion coaching (p < .001), while caregivers with greater adverse childhood experiences reported greater frequency of child disruptive behavior (p = .01).

Conclusion

Emotion coaching was associated was positively associated with emotion dismissing, suggesting caregivers use a combination of both. Results suggest age and childhood trauma may be important factors in caregiver emotion socialization practices, while caregiver type was less important in this sample. This emphasizes the challenges faced by non-biological parents of children with FASD.