Parent-Child Interactions and Their Relation to Friendship Quality in Children with and without Autism: An Analysis of Joint Attention and Responsiveness

Background: Healthy social relationships are crucial to positive child development. Previous investigations have shown that positive parent-child relationships predict a number of favorable outcomes for children including academic adjustment, popularity amongst peers, and positive long-term social outcomes (Morrison, Rimm-Kauffman & Pianta, 2003; Pianta & Harbers, 1996; Black & Logan, 1995).  Engaging in joint attention is among the first interactions between children and their parents, and significantly relates to important developmental processes across early childhood, including language and social development. Parental behaviors during play activities also influence children’s social development.  One such parental behavior is responsiveness, which involves behaviors meant to maintain a child’s engagement.  Parent behavior in dyadic play interactions predicts popularity and peer acceptance in pre-school (Black & Logan, 1995). Children’s social interactions with parents, therefore, may directly impact their interactions and friendships with peers, areas of notable delay for children with autism. 

Objectives: To explore two dimensions of parent-child interactions (joint attention engagement and responsiveness) to understand how they relate to friendship qualities in children with autism and a comparison sample of typically-developing children.

Methods: Participants include 20 children with autism and 20 typically-developing children matched on their language age.  Children had a mean age of 54.57 months (SD = 12.02).  After taking part in an initial visit to assess developmental level, children participated in a series of laboratory tasks designed to measure social and emotional development, including a 5-minute parent-child free play interaction.  Engagement states were coded as (1) coordinated engaged; or (2) unengaged (Adamson, Bakeman, Russell & Deckner, 2000).  Responsiveness was coded as (1) amount of mutual play (i.e., how involved in the same activity is the dyad); (2) number of times the mother gives positive feedback (e.g. “That’s right,” patting child on back); and (3) the number of responses the mother gives to the child’s nonverbal bids, pointing, showing, or offering (Kasari, Sigman, Mundy, & Yirmiya, 1988).  Parents completed a follow-up questionnaire that included a measure of children’s friendship qualities adapted from Buysse (1991).

Results: Analyses are currently underway to examine the primary study questions concerning the impact of parent-child joint engagement and responsiveness on friendship qualities among children with autism.  Preliminary findings on related variables point to an interesting pattern of findings.  Specifically, on measures of child temperament related to attention and engagement (i.e., attention focusing and attention shifting), children with autism were rated as displaying significantly less focused attention and shifting (p < .05).  On a measure of coping behaviors during interactions with peers, which may be related to peer acceptance and friendships, children with autism were rated as showing significantly fewer adaptive coping strategies when faced with challenging peer situations (p < .10).

Conclusions: Preliminary findings suggest a meaningful pattern of findings concerning impaired attention and engagement, and poorer adaptive coping strategies in challenging peer situations among preschoolers with autism.  Further analyses will be conducted to explore whether observations of joint engagement and parental responsiveness in the parent-child interaction reveal similar group differences, and whether such behaviors relate to children’s friendship qualities.