Good work!: examining the use and impact of parent feedback within the context of autism

Abstract

Sensitive parenting is important for childrens development. Parent feedback, a component of sensitive parenting, plays an instrumental role in childrens motivation. In certain populations, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), motivation is a key issue that could be influenced by parent feedback. However, few studies have examined the presence of the naturalistic use of parent feedback or its impact on motivation for children with ASD. The current study included 53 parents and their child (ages 3-6) who completed a challenging puzzle task to assess which parent and child characteristics predicted parent feedback and how the parent feedback impacted child motivation. I found that parents of children with ASD reported more depressive symptoms and greater child symptom severity. Further, parents of children with ASD used more encouragement and their children showed less motivation. Parent depression and child restricted/repetitive behaviors predicted process feedback. Further, process and ambiguous feedback were both related to motivation--Abstract.