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Challenging behaviors significantly impact learning and socialization of autistic children and can stress and burden their caregivers. Documentation of challenging behaviors is fundamental for identifying what environmental factors influence them, such as how others respond to a child's such behaviors. Caregiver-tracked data on their child's challenging behaviors can help clinical experts make informed recommendations about how to manage such behaviors. To support caregivers in recording their children's challenging behaviors, we developed GeniAuti, a mobile-based data-collection tool built upon a clinical data collection form to document challenging behaviors and other clinically relevant contextual information such as place, duration, intensity, and what triggers such behaviors. Through an open-ended deployment with 19 parent-child pairs and three expert collaborators, caregivers found GeniAuti valuable for (1) becoming more attentive and reflective to behavioral contexts, including their own response strategies, (2) discovering positive aspects of their children's behaviors, and (3) promoting collaboration with clinical experts around the caregiver-tracked data to develop tailored intervention strategies for their children. However, participant experiences surface challenges of logging behaviors in social circumstances, conflicting views between caregivers and clinical experts around the structured recording process, and emotional struggles resulting from recording and reflecting on intensely negative experiences. Considering the complex nature of caregiver-based health tracking and caregiver--clinician collaboration, we suggest design opportunities for facilitating negotiations between caregivers and clinicians and accounting for caregivers' emotional needs.
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Caregivers’ positive emotion socialization tendencies are associated with positive affect in preschool age children
Abstract Longstanding theories of emotion socialization postulate that caregiver emotional and behavioral reactions to a child's emotions together shape the child's emotion displays over time. Despite the notable importance of positive valence system function, the majority of research on caregiver emotion socialization focuses on negative valence system emotions. In the current project, we leveraged a relatively large cross‐sectional study of caregivers (N = 234; 93.59% White) of preschool aged children to investigate whether and to what degree, caregiver (1) emotional experiences, or (2) external behaviors, in the context of preschoolers’ positive emotion displays in caregiver–child interactions, are associated with children's general positive affect tendencies. Results indicated that, in the context of everyday caregiver–child interactions, caregiver‐reported positively valenced emotions but not approach behaviors were positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. However, when examining specific caregiver behaviors in response to everyday child positive emotion displays, caregiver report of narrating the child's emotion and joining in the emotion with their child was positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. Together, these results suggest that in everyday caregiver–child interactions, caregivers’ emotional experiences and attunement with the child play a role in shaping preschoolers’ overall tendencies toward positive affect.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2042285
- PAR ID:
- 10398865
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Infant Mental Health Journal
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0163-9641
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 437-447
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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