Characterizing How Families Cope with Pediatric Misophonia: Youth Coping, Parent Responses, and Associations with Symptom Severity

Background/Objectives: Given that the evidence-based treatment for pediatric misophonia remains in its early stages, families have developed their own strategies to cope with misophonia-related distress. The control-based model of coping distinguishes between voluntary coping and involuntary responses to stressful events and provides a useful framework for understanding responses to misophonia-related distress. This report sought to characterize the range of coping strategies and involuntary stress responses among youth and families and their associations with misophonia symptom severity to inform novel targets for future family-focused interventions.

Methods

Participants were recruited online across the United States and included 85 parents (M = 42.58 years, SD = 6.25) who reported on their children (M = 12.92 years, SD = 2.34) with misophonia symptoms. Parents completed questionnaires about their child's misophonia symptoms, coping and involuntary stress responses, parent responses to symptoms, perceived effectiveness of approaches, parenting stress, and family functioning.