About this session

Saturday, 12:10 PM - 1:40 PM

Implications of Adolescents’ Autonomic Physiological Reactivity for Close Friendships and Socioemotional Adjustment

The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) has implications for emotional self-regulation (Beauchaine; Thayer et al., 2009) and functioning in close relationships (Porges, 1995). Shift in PNS activity in response to the environment can be measured using respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity (RSAR). Importantly, the significance of RSAR for adjustment depends on the context in which it is assessed (Obradovic et al., 2011) and the social context of the individual (e.g., Cui et al., 2018).

This symposium includes three papers that examined the interrelations among adolescents’ RSAR, their close friendships, and their socioemotional adjustment. RSAR was examined in response to cognitive challenges (Papers 1 & 2), social stressors (Paper 1), and interactions that involve talking about problems with close friends (Paper 2) and parents (Paper 3). Paper 1 examined how positive and negative friendship qualities affected the link between adolescents’ RSAR and their internalizing, externalizing, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, Paper 2 examined adolescents’ and their friends’ RSAR during a dyadic problem-disclosure interaction as a moderator of the link between their co-rumination and depressive symptoms. Paper 3 examined adolescents’ RSAR to a parent-adolescent discussion of peer problems as a moderator of the link between parenting behaviors and adolescents’ friendship quality and loneliness.

Altogether, the papers in this symposium address a critical gap in the literature regarding the role of the PNS in adolescents’ close friendship functioning. Moreover, the papers provide a nuanced investigation of how adolescents’ physiological reactivity interacts with their social environments to influence their adjustment.

Paper #1
Title	Beneficial or Fostering Future Struggles? Adolescent Friendships Moderate the Association between Psychophysiological Regulation and Psychopathology
Presenting author	Anna Leah Davis, University of South Carolina, USA

Paper #2
Title	Adolescents’ and Their Friends’ Autonomic Physiological Regulation Moderate the Association Between Co-Rumination and Depressive Symptoms
Presenting author	Sarah K. Borowski, Ph.D., Lehigh University, USA

Paper #3
Title	Peer Adjustment in Middle School: Mothers’ Advice and Youths’ Physiological Reactivity
Presenting author	Kelly M. Tu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA

View all paper details

Session chair
Sarah K. Borowski, Ph.D., Lehigh University, United States

Discussant
Megan R. Gunnar, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, United States

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