The findings of this study provide important considerations for professionals and families.

We analyzed family dynamics and coping behaviors of parents with a child with an autistic spectrum disorder. Previous research suggests that moderate levels of cohesion and adaptability are associated with higher levels of positive coping, and that the more coping strategies a family implements, the greater their satisfaction with family functioning. Using a family systems approach, the relationships among the familial variables of cohesion, adaptability, and social support were evaluated for their contributions to coping in the family unit. We also compared the responses of mothers and fathers. Surprisingly, for these parents of children with autism, those who rated their family as enmeshed implemented more positive coping strategies than did those from other cohesion styles. This finding suggests that the enmeshed style may be more adaptive for a family that encounters extreme challenges. Notably, mothers and fathers agreed on all variables except for perception of social support from family and friends. Mothers perceived more social support from family and friends. The results lead to several interesting suggestions for future research.

iii AbstractWe looked at how a child with autism affects the dynamics and coping behaviors of a family. A majority of studies on families with a child with autism collect information from the mother but not the father. Therefore, this study examined the involvement of both parents from a family systems theory approach, which compares relationships among different familial variables, to determine the contributions of each individual to the developmental outcomes of the family unit. It was hypothesized that moderate levels of cohesion and adaptability would be associated with higher levels of positive coping mechanisms. Further, the more coping strategies implemented by a family would predict greater satisfaction with their family functioning. It was also expected that mothers would rate their families as more cohesive and adaptable, and more likely to implement positive coping strategies, and would perceive more social support than fathers. Results suggest that enmeshed families generally implement more positive coping strategies than other cohesion styles. Further, mothers perceive more social support from their family and friends than fathers do. It appears that families of children with autism have family styles similar to a normed group of families, except there were more chaotic and less rigid families in this sample. Future research ideas and possible implications of these findings are discussed.

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Taste potentiated illness-induced aversions for noisy food were studied in Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats ate from receptacles containing salty food and a contiguous tone produced by speakers under the food followed by lithium chloride injections. In preference tests, the rats then avoided noisy food in favor of quiet food followed by extinction and spontaneous recovery of the auditory aversion over repeated nonreinforced trials. Other rats were given either 4 or 10 days of exposure to the noisy food prior to taste-toxicosis treatment. None of these rats subsequently avoided noisy food. The importance of spatial contiguity and methodological variation in associating nongustatory food cues with illness is discussed.