The Strengths and Positive Influences of Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
Carson Kautz-Turnbull, Tangeria R Adams, Christie L M Petrenko
PMID 36018765WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers of young children with FASD described strengths in social connection, persistence, talents, and positive mood.
They also said the children brought family togetherness, joy, and help with household tasks. Their positive descriptions were not linked to child behavior or parenting stress.
Key findings
01Almost all caregivers named social motivation as a strength, describing children as loving, affectionate, helpful, generous, and funny.
02Positive influence fell into categories of tangible contribution, parental growth, family togetherness, emotional contribution, and strengths repeated without family connection.
03How positively caregivers spoke about strengths and family influence did not line up with child behavior, emotion regulation, parenting stress, or parenting satisfaction and efficacy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 30 caregiver interviews were analyzed, and the correlational analyses were powered to detect only medium to large effects. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether these strengths and positive influences stay the same over time. All information came from caregivers, so perceptions may be biased. The sample was mostly adoptive, female, and white caregivers, and mostly male children; birth parents were not included. Families were treatment-seeking and enrolled in a larger intervention study, so they may differ from families not seeking services. Inter-rater agreement was lower for emotional contribution and positivity of influence, 71.4% and 67.9%. The 14 adaptive behavior strengths score correlated with child and caregiver functioning, so it may not capture the same subjective positives as the open-ended interview.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the article. The article is tagged as NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that these strengths are measured abilities or that a strengths-based approach improves outcomes. They came from caregiver interviews in 30 treatment-seeking families, and the study did not test an intervention or follow children over time.