Parent Emotion Socialization Behaviors and Adolescent Psychological Symptoms in Families with and without Tourette Syndrome

Abstract

Adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS) are at heightened risk for experiencing psychosocial difficulties. While tics are the defining symptom of TS, widespread psychological comorbidities are the rule rather than the exception. Current treatments focus on tic management, yet psychological symptoms have consistently been shown to be a stronger predictor of quality of life than tic severity. As such, there is an urgent clinical need to identify risk factors for psychopathology in adolescents with TS. Parent emotion socialization (ES) is a method through which parents educate their children about emotions and model for them emotion regulation strategies. Parent ES has been implicated in the development of children’s emotion regulation skills and is related to youth psychological outcomes. Parent ES behaviors in adolescents with TS have not yet been examined, but evidence of ES behaviors in other neurodevelopmental disorders and of environmental sensitivity in TS suggests a potential differential susceptibility to parent ES behaviors in adolescents with TS. The present study utilized parent self-report questionnaires and behavioral observations of parent-adolescent dyads engaging in a conflict discussion to examine ES behaviors in parents of adolescents with and without TS. We sought to examine potential group differences in parent ES behaviors and investigate the relationship of these behaviors with adolescent psychological symptoms by group. Results revealed that while there were no group differences in parent ES behaviors, parents of both groups engaged in a range of ES behaviors. Additionally, ES behaviors were differentially associated with psychological symptoms in the TS group only. Findings implicate important future directions for research, as well as a novel target for intervention in families affected by TS and highlight the importance of parental support in this population.