Parental Perspectives of the Impact of Emotion Dysregulation on Challenging Behaviours in Autistic Children

Background: Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in social communication, as well as restricted and repetitive behaviours. It is well established in the literature that difficulties with emotion regulation and the display of challenging behaviours are prominent secondary characteristics of autism that have negative consequences for both the individual and their family. Though emotion dysregulation and challenging behaviours are well studied as separate constructs, little is known about the relation between the two, how one affects the presentation of the other, and the relative implications for intervention. This thesis sought to understand the relation between emotion dysregulation and challenging behaviours by gathering parental perspectives of the perceived impact that emotion dysregulation has on their child’s challenging behaviour and the related implications for intervention. Methodology: This study was intended to be a mixed method analysis using a quantitative online survey to capture the frequency and severity of challenging behaviour and observable indicators of poor emotion regulation followed by a qualitative semi-structured interview. Results: Due to the small sample size, the quantitative data was not included in analysis and was only used to inform the construction of the qualitative semi-structured interview. Reflexive thematic analysis identified eight themes and two subthemes under the domains of emotion dysregulation, challenging behaviours, and the relation between emotion dysregulation and challenging behaviours. Discussion: This thesis identified novel information under the domains of emotion dysregulation, challenging behaviour, and the relation between the two constructs. The results present evidence of communication impairments eliciting feelings of dysregulation in autistic children, and that the inability to engage in adaptive emotion regulation and properly communicate their feelings prohibits them from choosing and engaging in an appropriate emotional response or strategy. Consequently, autistic children seem to engage in challenging behaviour. The current findings can inform programs and services that support autistic children with the goal of decreasing challenging behaviour and increasing adaptive emotion regulation skills. Important implications for future researchers include quantitatively exploring the severity of communication impairments in autistic children and how it affects both emotion dysregulation and challenging behaviour

The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: “There’s a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe”

The COVID-19 global incidence rate among young adults (age 19–40) drastically increased since summer 2020, and young adults were often portrayed by popular media as the "main spreader" of the pandemic. However, young adults faced unique challenges during the pandemic due to working in high-risk, low-paying essential service occupations, as well as having higher levels of financial insecurity and mental burden. This qualitative study aims to examine the attitudes and perceptions of health orders of young adults to better inform public health messaging to reach this demographic and increase compliance to public health orders. A total of 50 young adults residing in British Columbia, Canada, were recruited to participate in focus group in groups of four to six. Focus group discussions were conducted via teleconferencing. Thematic analysis revealed four major themes: 1) risks of contracting the disease, 2) the perceived impact of COVID-19, 3) responsibility of institutions, 4) and effective public health messaging. Contrary to existing literature, our findings suggest young adults feel highly responsible for protecting themselves and others. They face a higher risk of depression and anxiety compared to other age groups, especially when they take on multiple social roles such as caregivers and parents. Our findings suggest young adults face confusion due to inconsistent messaging and are not reached due to the ineffectiveness of existing strategies. We recommend using evidence-based strategies proven to promote behaviour change to address the barriers identified by young adults through tailoring public health messages, specifically by using positive messaging, messaging that considers the context of the intended audiences, and utilizing digital platforms to facilitate two-way communication