Results showed at 6 - month follow - up that compared to the waitlist control group, significant intervention effects were found
for disruptive child behavior, ineffective parenting practices, parenting confidence, as well as clinically significant improvements on child behavior and parenting.
These results are reflective of retrospective studies that
found disruptive child behaviors predictive of higher levels of psychological distress in parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., Abbeduto et al., 2004; King et al., 1999).
Consistent with our predictions,
disruptive child behaviors moderated the daily parenting stress — negative mood relationship (β = 0.01, p <.001), but not the daily parenting stress — positive mood relationship.
Higher levels of
disruptive child behaviors predicted more daily negative mood (β = 0.05, p <.01), but the association between disruptive behaviors and daily positive mood was not significant.
Results indicated that the two practitioner - assisted interventions were associated with lower levels of parent -
reported disruptive child behavior, lower levels of dysfunctional parenting, and parents reported a heightened sense of competence.
That said, these sensitivity analyses confirm our main finding that often assumed moderators of parenting intervention effects are of limited help in explaining who benefits from parenting interventions for
reducing disruptive child behavior.
Furthermore, the relationship
between disruptive child behaviors and negative mood was moderated by daily parenting stress; on more stressful days, higher levels of disruptive behaviors predicted higher levels of daily negative mood.
Compared to the waitlist control group (n = 40), parents in the intervention group (n = 45) reported greater improvements
in disruptive child behavior, ineffective parenting practices and parenting confidence, as well as clinically significant improvements in child behavior and parenting.
Objective To examine the extent to which social support, unsupportive interactions, support services, and
disruptive child behaviors predict daily positive and negative mood in parents of children with autism.
Research to identify factors associated with stress and distress in parents of children with ASD has generally
found disruptive child behaviors and behaviors characteristic of ASD to be predictive of psychological distress in this group of parents (e.g., Abbeduto et al., 2004; Lecavalier, Leone, & Wiltz, 2006).
There were significant improvements from pre - to post-intervention for both conditions, on measures
of disruptive child behavior, dysfunctional parenting style, conflict over parenting, relationship satisfaction and communication.
A Meta - Analysis on Parent Training Effectiveness for
Disruptive Child Behavior.
However, these other studies primarily targeted preschool children with subclinical EBP, with the Berkovits et al. (2010) study ruling out children exhibiting clinically elevated EBP, and the Turner and Sanders (2006) study acknowledging «low overall level of
disruptive child behavior» when compared to previous Triple P outcome studies.
In the current study, statistical analyses evaluated the main and moderating effects of variables measured repeatedly at the within - person level (stress, social support, and unsupportive interactions) and variables measured at the between - person level (
disruptive child behaviors, and support services) on daily positive and negative mood.
Methods Ninety - three parents of children with autism completed initial measures of
disruptive child behaviors, and support services, then biweekly measures of daily stress, received emotional and instrumental social support, unsupportive social interactions, and mood over 3 months.
Conclusions Daily received social support and unsupportive interactions, and
disruptive child behaviors are important predictors of daily mood.
Greater daily negative mood was associated with less emotional support and more parenting stress, unsupportive interactions, and
disruptive child behaviors.
Moderating predictions were more tentative; it was predicted that instrumental social support and support services would buffer the relationship between daily parenting stress and daily negative mood, whereas unsupportive interactions and
disruptive child behaviors would intensify the effect of daily parenting stress on daily negative mood.
As expected,
disruptive child behaviors were positively associated with higher levels of daily negative mood.
Conversely, unsupportive interactions and
disruptive child behaviors were hypothesized to predict lower levels of daily positive and greater daily negative mood.
First, control variables (SCQ score reflecting ASD symptoms, time since ASD diagnosis, child's age, number of children in the home, parent education, income, and other daily stress) and predictor variables (
disruptive child behaviors, services received, daily parenting stress, social support, and unsupportive interactions) were entered into the models.