Emotion Regulation in Preschoolers With Autism and Their Parents

NCT ID: NCT01643720

Last Updated: 2015-04-08

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 80 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2010-11-30
• Study Completion Date: 2011-05-31

Brief Summary

In the proposed study, the investigators would like to investigate the emotion regulation (ER) strategies children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) demonstrate, and the influence parents have on their children's ER. More specifically, the investigators would like to examine what are the ER mechanisms that parents use, what mechanisms of self regulation children with autism internalize, and how parents support and improve the ER capabilities of their child with ASD. These will be studied in a behavioral level, using micro-analysis of parent-child interaction, and in a physiological level, using indexes of stress control and affiliation. In addition, in order for parental ER support to be effective, it is important to consider more innate neuro-developmental difficulties children with ASD demonstrate that strongly affect their ability to regulate themselves. These include sensory regulation difficulties, temperament, attention disorders and poor executive functioning.

Hypotheses:

1. ER strategies used by children with ASD will be more poorly developed and less effective, compared to those of children in the control groups.

2. Difficult temperament and sensory regulation difficulties will hamper ER in children with ASD.

3. ER strategies of parents of children with ASD will be more poorly developed and less effective than those of parents in the control groups.

4. Good parental self-ER and parental attunement to the child will be predictive of improved ER in children with ASD, and in parent-child synchrony, both in the behavioral and in the physiological levels.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: CASE_CONTROL
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with Autism Disorders and their parents

No interventions assigned to this group

Typically Developing

Typically Developing children and their parents

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• For the study group:Children diagnosed with ASD
• For the comparison group:Children with typical development

Exclusion Criteria

• For the study group:Non verbal children.
• For the comparison group: Any major developmental disability.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 3 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Meir Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Nathaniel Laor, MD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Brill Mental Health Center, Ramat Chen, Israel

Ofer Golan, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Ruth Feldman, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Nathaniel Laor, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Brill Mental Health Center, Ramat Chen, Israel

Locations

Brill Mental Health Center

Tel Aviv, , Israel

Countries

Israel

Other Identifiers

MMC1013010kCTIL

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id