Multimethod examination of change in autistic preschoolers' emotion dysregulation in the context of parenting stress intervention

BACKGROUND: Many autistic preschoolers experience heightened emotion dysregulation and rely heavily on parents for co-regulatory support, which may be compromised by elevated parenting stress. METHODS: We examined secondary outcomes of a randomized trial (ClinicalTrials.gov - NCT03459625) to assess downstream effects of parent stress-reduction interventions (MBSR vs. Psychoeducational Support) on emotion dysregulation in autistic children with diverse developmental and behavioral profiles (N = 117). We also explored cross-method, cross-context correspondence between parent report of children's regulatory tendencies and observational ratings derived from independent and dyadic parent-child problem-solving tasks. RESULTS: Parent-reported child dysregulation and observed dyadic dysregulation decreased significantly across groups, with reduced parenting stress predicting decreased parent-reported dysregulation. Conversely, observed child independent dysregulation remained relatively stable. Meaningful multimethod associations were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest important collateral benefits of parenting stress reduction during the sensitive postdiagnostic period and highlight the sensitivity and utility of parent-reported and observed dyadic dysregulation as trial outcomes, including the new Emotion Dysregulation Inventory-Young Child. Implications for conceptualization and measurement of emotion dysregulation in autism are discussed, as are considerations for optimizing environmental supports.