Emotion Regulation Strategies in Preschoolers with Autism: Associations with Parent Quality of Life and Family Functioning.

Tsai et al. (2018) watched preschoolers with autism and typical kids during everyday play. They asked parents to fill out forms about child behaviors and family life. The team wanted to know which emotion habits in the child most hurt parent well-being.

Kids with autism who hit, yelled, or ran off had parents who felt life was harder. When these kids also skipped calm-down tricks like hugging a toy or seeking a hug, family life dipped even lower. The link showed up even after the team counted how severe each child's autism was.

Berkovits et al. (2017) saw the same pattern one year earlier. They tracked preschoolers for ten months and found that emotion meltdowns stayed stable and foretold later social problems. Joy's work now adds that those same meltdowns also wear parents down today, not just tomorrow.

Barak-Levy et al. (2015) looked at moms, not kids. They found that strict, 'do-as-I-say' moms had children who could calm their own anger but would not let mom help. Joy flips the lens: when the child cannot use passive soothing, mom's quality of life drops. The two papers fit like puzzle pieces—parent style and child skill each matter.

Uljarević et al. (2018) used the CBCL Dysregulated Profile and showed that toddler dysregulation predicts poor adaptive gains. Joy used similar rating scales with preschoolers and tied the same dysregulation to parent stress instead of child skills. Together they tell us the score matters for both child progress and family wellness.

If you serve preschoolers with autism, screen for hitting, screaming, and lack of calm-down moves. Teach passive soothing—soft blankets, humming, deep pressure—early and often. When the child uses these tools, parent stress can fall and family routines like meals, shopping, or park trips get easier for everyone.