Exploring the Association between Low Self-Regulation-Related Cues and Parental Overinvolvement/Controlling Coping in Families of Children with Developmental Delays: Preliminary Directions for Early Parent Counseling from a Goodness-of-Fit Perspective

Abstract

This study explored the association between low self-regulation-related cues and parental overinvolvement/controlling coping in families of children with developmental delays or suspected developmental delays. In addition, it examined preliminary directions for early parent counseling from a goodness-of-fit perspective. Seventy-two initial counseling records were analyzed. Children’s behavioral and emotional response cues and parental coping responses were categorized, and inter-rater agreement, cross-tabulation, Fisher’s exact tests, odds ratios, logistic regression controlling for child age in months, and bootstrapping were conducted. Cohen’s κ was .776 for child response cue categories and .905 for parental coping categories. Although the overall association between the five child response cue categories and the three major parental coping categories was not statistically significant, low self-regulation-related cues were significantly associated with parental overinvolvement/controlling coping. The proportion of parental overinvolvement/controlling coping was 45.0% in the low selfregulation-related cue group compared with 17.3% in the other group. The logistic regression results were interpreted cautiously because the overall model significance remained marginal; however, 5,000 bootstrap resamples provided supplementary support for the association. Based on these findings, preliminary parent counseling directions focusing on this specific interactional pattern were proposed. An expert content validity review of the broader preliminary counseling framework conducted by seven professionals yielded an S-CVI/Ave of .98. These findings provide exploratory evidence for identifying and addressing this interactional pattern in early parent counseling.