Emotion Regulation and Depression in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Research findings prove that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have more depressive symptoms than parents of typically developing (TD) children (Olsson & Hwang, 2001; Davis & Carter, 2008). Experienced stress related to the child difficult behavior and restrictions in personal life imply a higher risk for depression (Olsson & Hwang, 2001). However, studies with TD children also show that children of depressed parents are at risk of developing low emotion regulation (ER) ability (Feng, Shaw, Kovacs, Lane, O’Rourke, & Alarcon, 2008; Hoffman, Crnic, & Baker, 2006). Therefore, it is hypothesized that ER abilities in children with ASD and depressive symptoms in parents are related.

Objectives: Analyze the relationship between depressive symptoms in parents and ER of children with ASD. 

Methods: 31 parents answered questionnaires about themselves and their children. Parents were aged 31 to 54 years old and their children 5 to 12 years old. 9 children were diagnosed with ASD accompanied by intellectual and language impairments, 9 were diagnosed with ASD without intellectual and language impairments, and 13 were TD children. The following questionnaires have been applied: the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale for adults (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004), which assesses emotional dysregulation; the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003), which assesses cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression; the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D scale; Radloff, 1977), which assesses depressive symptomatology; the Autism Spectrum Quotient Questionnaire for Children (AQ-Child; Auyeung, Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, & Allison, 2008) which assesses autistic traits; and the Emotion Regulation Checklist of children (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997) which assesses ER and lability-negativity. 

Results: Parents of children with ASD with intellectual and language impairments had a significantly higher score in the DERS (χ²(2)=7.54, p<.05) and parents of children with ASD without intellectual and language impairment reported using more reappraisal than parents of TD children (U=36, p<.05). Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between the use of reappraisal in parents and the score on the AQ-Child (r_s(29)=.38, p<.05). Finally, no relations were found between the parents score on the CES-D and the 3 groups of children (χ²(2)=2.42, p=.30) or the score on the AQ-child (r_s(29)=.19, p=.15). However, parents’ score on the CES-D was positively correlated to their score on the DERS (r_s(29)=.33, p<.05) and negatively correlated to the children’s score on the ER scale of the ERC (r_s(29)=-.30, p<.05). 

Conclusions: Parents of children with ASD with intellectual and language impairments reported having more ER difficulties. The more the autistic traits appear in children; the more parents used cognitive reappraisal as an ER strategy. Furthermore, parent style of ER and their children ER ability proved to be related to depressive symptoms. However, the causality of this relation is yet to be defined. Parents’ depressive symptoms and difficulties in ER might be risk factors for children with ASD developing low ER abilities. On the other hand, children’s difficult behavior and difficulties regulating themselves might lead to higher stress levels and depression in parents.