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About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
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| Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships |
| Paper #1 | |
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| Parent-Child RSA Synchrony under Stress and the Development of Interoceptive Emotion Awareness in Early Childhood | |
| Author information | Role |
| Marisa N. Lytle, The Pennsylvania State University, United States | Presenting author |
| Joscelin Rocha-Hidalgo, The Pennsylvania State University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Kivilcim Degirmencioglu, The Pennsylvania State University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Kimberly Labra-Franco, The Pennsylvania State University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Susan B. Perlman, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Koraly Pérez-Edgar, The Pennsylvania State University, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is characterized as a neurophysiological marker of emotion regulation via the parasympathetic nervous system (Porges, 2007). Challenging social contexts that elicit stress in children may be particularly important for understanding how parents help children regulate rising arousal (Suveg et al., 2016). In these moments, lower or negative RSA synchrony (parents show RSA augmentation while children show withdrawal) may help the child by providing an external regulatory support system (Lunkenheimer et al., 2015). Models of interoceptive development posit that parental responsivity to child physiological change may scaffold children’s understanding of physiological signals arising from their body and their relations to emotion (i.e., interoceptive emotion awareness), supporting emotional and social outcomes (Atzil et al., 2018). The present study explores how RSA synchrony during stress may support children’s growing interoceptive emotion awareness. We hypothesize that more negative synchrony will relate to greater interoceptive emotion awareness as parents help children regulate physiological change to stress. Furthermore, we hypothesize that this effect will be greater in younger children who may have less stability in their interoceptive understanding and thus more room for growth. Participants included 31 parent-child dyads (21 mothers, 15 female children, 15 same gender dyads, Mchild_age=5.45, SD=0.88) from an ongoing larger multi-site cohort-sequential study. Dyads completed a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST) in which the child gave a two-minute speech in front of a judge while the parent watched. ECG was recorded continuously from both participants and later processed for second-by-second RSA using a short-time Fourier transformation with a 30-second sliding window (Figure 1). State fluctuations in RSA were calculated as deviations from one’s task average. RSA synchrony was operationalized as the model implied relation of child state RSA on parent state RSA (Lunkenheimer et al., 2021). One year following completion of the TSST, parents reported on their child’s interoceptive emotion awareness using a parent-report adapted version of the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (Clark et al., 2024). Multilevel modeling assessed our primary research question on the relation between second-by-second RSA synchrony, interoceptive emotion awareness, and age. Child trait RSA, dyadic gender, and time were entered as covariates. Model results supported our hypotheses and indicated that greater emotion awareness related to more negative RSA synchrony (b=-0.15, SE=0.06, p=.03). In addition, same gender dyads exhibited more negative RSA synchrony (b=-0.32, SE=0.13, p=.02). Lastly, the interaction between child age and interoceptive emotion awareness on RSA synchrony was significant (b=0.13, SE=0.06, p=.05), see Figure 2 for simple slopes. Preliminary results suggest that negative RSA synchrony may allow for parental scaffolding of emotion regulation, allowing children to better understand how physiological signals from their bodies relate to specific emotion appraisals. However, findings should be considered with caution given the preliminary small sample size, as well as a lack of control for initial levels of interoceptive emotion awareness. Continuing work will expand the sample to provide more robust estimates on how RSA synchrony may promote change in emotion awareness. |
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| Paper #2 | |
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| Multiple Timescales of RSA Synchrony Explain Variability in Stress Reactivity in Different Ways | |
| Author information | Role |
| Grace Steffen, University of Georgia, United States | Presenting author |
| Christopher Bell, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Christian Jerry, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Kayley Morrow, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Cindy Suveg, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Drew H. Abney, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Introduction: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a neurophysiological substrate empirically associated with regulatory behaviors of children. How children’s and their parents’ RSA change together – physiological synchrony – has become an indicator of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulatory abilities. Physiological synchrony is generally estimated by using the instantaneous RSA signals from a child and their caregiver, but RSA fluctuates at multiple timescales. It is therefore important to determine whether and how physiological synchrony measured at different timescales explains variability of a common biological markers like stress reactivity. The goal of this study was to explore if and how different timescales of physiological synchrony explain variability of children’s stress reactivity during a mildly stressful collaborative task with their biological mothers. Hypotheses: A main hypothesis is that physiological synchrony, when estimated at different timescales (fast timescales of ~8 seconds and long timescales of ~64s seconds), will be associated with variability in stress reactivity. A secondary hypothesis is that physiological synchrony at faster timescales will be associated with less increases in stress reactivity (increased levels of cortisol after a mildly stressful task). Study Population: 80 mothers and their 5- to 7-year-old children (43 females) participated in the study. Families were part of a community sample recruited from a southeastern college town. Methods: Child and caregiver physiological signals were collected via wireless ECG during a mildly stressful collaborative task. RSA timeseries were estimated from cleaned and processed inter-beat interval series using a 15-second sliding window and resampled to 1Hz. Stress reactivity was computed by subtracting the cortisol estimates from a saliva sample taken before the collaborative task from the cortisol estimates taken 25 minutes after the task. Physiological synchrony at multiple timescales was estimated using cross-wavelet transformation, which is a time-frequency analysis that uses spectral decomposition to estimate changes in the coherence at different periods (or timescales) and how those estimates change over time. We estimated coherence at the following timescales: 4s, 8s, 16s, 32s, 64s (see Figure 1 for an example cross-wavelet coherence plot). Coherence at each timescale is an estimate of physiological synchrony. Results: We used a set of zero-order correlations to test associations between coherence at each timescale with estimates of stress reactivity. We found evidence for the main hypothesis, that coherence estimates measured at different timescales were associated in unique ways with stress reactivity. Specifically, we only observed significant associations with stress reactivity and coherence at the following timescales: 8s (r = 0.35, p = .002), 16s (r = 0.29, p = .01), and 64s (r = -0.40, p < .001). We observed evidence for the secondary hypothesis, but in the opposite direction: increases in cortisol from baseline to post-task were associated with higher coherence at shorter timescales (8s) and decreases in cortisol were associated with higher coherence at longer timescales (64s). Higher physiological synchrony at longer timescales was associated with more adaptive cortisol responses. Overall, the results from the current study show the value in investigating the unique contributions of different timescales of RSA synchrony. |
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| Paper #3 | |
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| Developmental Trajectories of Mother-Child RSA Synchrony across the First 5 Years: Implications for Child Adjustment | |
| Author information | Role |
| Dr. Qili Lan, Peking University, China | Presenting author |
| Li Wang, Peking University, China | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Mother-child physiological synchrony is theorized to be a key mechanism supporting child self-regulation and socio-emotional development. However, it is unclear how this synchrony develops over time and across different task contexts, and how the development of synchrony impacts child adjustment. Thus, this study examined the development of mother-child physiological synchrony (of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia [RSA]; a physiological indicator of emotion regulation) from 6 to 24 and 54 months, and its relation to child behavioral problems. The study focused on two common dyadic tasks: resting and interaction tasks. A total of 233 Chinese mother-child dyads participated in this longitudinal study. At 6, 24, and 54 months, dyads completed two videotaped tasks: a 3-minute resting task (watch a fishing toy act or an animated clip together) and a 3-minute interaction task (free play as dyads normally would at home with age-appropriate toys). Mother-child ECG signals were recorded throughout the tasks to capture RSA changes. At 54 months, mothers reported on their child’s internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Mother-child second-by-second RSA was derived from the ECG signals using a continuously moving window technique. Then, RSA synchrony (i.e., the dynamic mutual coordination and prediction between mother and child RSA changes) was calculated utilizing the innovative dynamic time wrapping method, which could capture the best similarity between mother-child RSA time series even with dynamic time lags and direction changes over time within a dyad. Growth trajectory modeling showed that mother-child RSA synchrony during the resting task increased linearly with child age, with significant variation in growth intercepts and slopes between dyads (see Figure 1). In contrast, RSA synchrony during the interaction task showed no overall growth trend but revealed significant between-dyad differences in trajectory, characterized by two latent trajectory classes (high and low synchrony; see Figure 2). Comparisons between tasks indicated that RSA synchrony during resting was significantly lower than during interaction at 6 months, but this difference disappeared by 24 and 54 months. Path analyses revealed that higher intercepts and growth slopes of RSA synchrony during the resting task from 6 to 54 months were significantly associated with fewer child internalizing problems at 54 months after accounting for covariates (child age, gender, and negative affect, and maternal depressive symptoms). Whereas trajectory classes of RSA synchrony during the interaction task did not predict child behavioral problems. Taken together, mother-child RSA synchrony during the resting task increased over the first 5 years, with higher levels predicting fewer child internalizing problems. RSA synchrony during the interaction task fluctuated across ages, with significant between-dyad variation but no association with child behavioral problems, suggesting the importance of considering the actual interactive behaviors accompanying RSA synchrony during the interaction task. These findings provide a novel insight into the development of mother-child RSA synchrony across ages and task contexts in early childhood. Particularly, mother-child synchrony of emotion-related physiology during co-watching resting tasks may reflect children’s ability to share emotional processes with parents in the same context and have crucial developmental implications for child adjustment. |
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| Paper #4 | |
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| Parental Early Adversity and Offspring Psychopathological Symptoms: Do Time Scales of Dyadic Physiological Synchrony Matter? | |
| Author information | Role |
| Cullin Howard, University of Georgia, United States | Presenting author |
| Feiyu Wang, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Kathryn Harmeyer, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Drew Abney, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Geoffrey Brown, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Nitzan Scharf, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Charles Geier, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Assaf Oshri, University of Georgia, United States | Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Introduction. Parents who report having experienced early life adversity (P-ELA) are a risk factor for the development of psychopathology in their offspring (Rowell & Neal-Barnett, 2022; Su et al., 2022). Extant research shows that the intergenerational effect of ELA on child risk for psychopathology is mediated via emotion regulation (Osborne et al., 2021). Work on the role of dyadic synchrony of the autonomic nervous system (i.e., physiological synchrony) represents a coregulatory context by which parents scaffold regulatory ability in their children (Oshri et al., 2023; Davis et al., 2018). New work on dynamic modeling of physiological synchrony demonstrates the utility of modeling dyadic synchrony in smaller, “higher-resolution” time windows (Abney et al., 2021). The present study utilizes a new methodological approach to capture the effect of fast, slow, and midrange time scales as a moderator of P-ELA and child risk for psychopathology. Specifically, we utilized cross-wavelet coherence analysis to estimate the degree of parent-child synchrony across a range of time-domains. We then examined how the linear and nonlinear associations between cumulative/dimensions of P-ELA and change in child psychopathology were moderated by fast, slow, and midrange time domains of parent-child physiological synchrony. Methods. Data were drawn from two studies from the Southeast United States and included 134 children (Mage(SD) = 11.59 (1.70) years; 54% female) and their primary caregivers (92% mothers). At baseline, parents self-reported on their P-ELA (CTQ), and parent-child stress physiology was collected continuously via ECG while the parent observed their child completing a math-modified version of the trier social stress task. Parents also reported their children's psychopathology symptoms at baseline and approximately 1 year later (CBCL). Second-by-second parasympathetic nervous system activity was indexed from the ECG signal via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) using a sliding 30-second window. Dyadic RSA synchrony was then estimated using cross-wavelet coherence analysis, and mean coherence values (synchrony) were computed for fast (1-10s), midrange (11-20s), and slow (21-30s) time-frequency domains. Using structural equation modeling, we tested each synchrony time domain as a moderator of the linear and quadratic association between P-ELA and changes in child psychopathology. Results. Controlling for demographic covariates and baseline psychopathology, changes in internalizing, externalizing, withdrawn, and social problems were regressed on linear and quadratic forms of threat, deprivation, and cumulative adversity. Whereas few main effects of P-ELA emerged, several linear and quadratic interactions with slow, midrange, and fast synchrony were observed (see Table 1). Stronger slow-frequency synchrony was linked to increasing the harmful effects of P-ELA on child externalizing (quadratic) and withdrawn (linear) symptoms. In contrast, stronger synchrony in faster time domains (midrange and fast) buffered the effect of P-ELA on change in child internalizing (quadratic), externalizing (linear), and withdrawn (quadratic) behaviors (e.g., Figure 1). Discussion. The variability between dyads in the strength of their stress-induced synchrony across time domains has notable implications for family-based resilience processes. Our results support the salient role of parent-child physiological synchrony in altering transgenerational effects of adversity, and also demonstrate the necessity of considering the time domains of physiological synchrony in this relationship. |
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Parent-Child RSA Synchrony and Child Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: Across Development, Contexts, and Time Scales
Submission Type
Paper Symposium
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| Session Title | Parent-Child RSA Synchrony and Child Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: Across Development, Contexts, and Time Scales |