Parent Emotion Socialization Behaviors and Adolescent Psychological Symptoms in Families Impacted by Tourette Syndrome

Parent emotion socialization (ES) behaviors, encompassing supportive and unsupportive responses to adolescent emotions, are an important factor in shaping youths’ psychological development, but their impact in adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS) has been largely overlooked. While tics are the defining symptom of TS, psychological comorbidities are widespread in this population and more strongly predict 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 ES behaviors in families affected by TS have not yet been examined, but evidence of (a) the impact of parent ES behaviors in other neurodevelopmental disorders and (b) environmental sensitivity in TS suggests adolescents with TS may be particularly sensitive to parent ES behaviors. The current study utilized behavioral observations of parent-adolescent dyads (n = 29) engaging in a conflict discussion to examine ES behaviors in parents of adolescents with TS. Additionally, we investigated the relationship of observed ES behaviors with adolescent self-reported psychological symptoms. Results revealed that parents of adolescents with TS engaged in wide ranges of both supportive and unsupportive ES behaviors. Further, greater use of supportive ES behaviors was significantly related to fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents, and greater use of unsupportive ES behaviors was significantly related to greater internalizing, and marginally related to greater externalizing, symptoms in adolescents. Findings highlight the importance of parental support in this population and implicate parent ES as a novel target for intervention in families affected by TS.