An Initial Investigation of Baseline Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia as a Moderator of Treatment Outcome for Young Children Born Premature With Externalizing Behavior Problems (original) (raw)
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Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 2009
Evidence-based psychosocial interventions for externalizing behavior problems in children born premature have not been reported in the literature. This single-case study describes Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with a 23-month-old child born at 29 weeks gestation weighing 1,020 grams, who presented with significant externalizing behavior problems. Treatment outcome was assessed using standard measures of maternal and child functioning and observational measures of the parent-child interaction, as well as a physiological measure of heart rate variability (i.e., vagal tone) used to assess parasympathetic control in the child. Maternal reports of child behavior problems and their own stress and depressive symptoms decreased after treatment. Behavioral observations demonstrated improved parenting practices and child compliance, and vagal tone showed comparable increases as well. Results suggest that PCIT is a promising psychosocial intervention for children born premature with externalizing behavior problems, and that vagal tone may be a useful measure of treatment outcome.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2003
The primary objective of this study was to examine the extent to which both individual child temperament and parent-child relationship quality independently and/or interactively predicted physiological, psychosocial, and behavioral 'outcomes'. Employing a longitudinal prospective design over three years, statistical associations were found among infant attachment, uninhibited temperament, and 4-year behavioral and physiological functioning that supported a bio-psychosocial model of development. Method: Three cohorts totaling 140 children and their mothers visited the laboratory for observational assessments of attachment classification at age 14 months (Strange Situation), behavioral inhibition at 24 months, and social behaviors with unfamiliar peers at age 4 years. Cardiac measures of heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were collected at every time point. At age 4 years maternal ratings of child temperament and behaviors were also obtained. Results: Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with inhibition group (high, moderate, low) and attachment classification (A, B, C) revealed that the low inhibited group had significantly higher activity level scores and displayed significantly less reticence at 4 years compared to the moderately and highly inhibited groups. Infants who had an avoidant attachment with their mothers had more externalizing problems (aggressive behaviors) at age 4 than either securely or ambivalently attached infants. This predictive relation, however, was qualified by an interaction whereby avoidant attachment and uninhibited temperament together predicted a higher incidence of externalizing behavior problems. Moreover, infants' avoidant attachment was not concurrently but predictively associated with lower heart rate and high RSA at age 4 years. Therefore, an avoidant mother-child relationship in infancy could influence the development of an underaroused autonomic profile in early childhood. Conclusions: Consistent with bio-psychosocial models of development, these findings support the contention that both early child temperament and parent-child relationship quality contribute to subsequent psychological/behavioral and physiological functioning.
Developmental Psychology, 2015
The goal of this study was to examine physiological and environmental predictors of children's sympathy (an emotional response consisting of feelings of concern or sorrow for others who are distressed or in need) and whether temperamental effortful control mediated these relations. Specifically, in a study of 192 children (23% Hispanic; 54% male), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure thought to reflect physiological regulation, and observed authoritative parenting (both at 42 months) were examined as predictors of children's effortful control (at 54 months) and, in turn, children's sympathy (at 72 and 84 months). Measures of both baseline RSA and RSA suppression were examined. In a structural equation model, observed parenting was positively related to children's subsequent sympathy through its positive relation to effortful control. Furthermore, the indirect path from baseline RSA to higher sympathy through effortful control was marginally significant. Authoritative parenting and baseline RSA uniquely predicted individual differences in children's effortful control. Findings highlight the potential role of both authoritative parenting and physiological regulation in the development of children's sympathy.
Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 2014
The aim of the current study was to examine the moderating effect of emotion regulation on treatment efficacy following a parent-training intervention, parent-child interaction therapy, for young children born preterm. In this pilot randomized controlled trial, 28 young children who were born preterm (i.e.,\37 weeks gestation) and presented with elevated levels of externalizing behavior problems were randomly assigned to an immediate treatment or waitlist control group. Observers masked to treatment condition coded an index of emotion regulation (i.e., global regulation) during a videotaped 10-min parent-child interaction at the initial baseline assessment. Treatment efficacy was assessed using a parent-report questionnaire of child disruptive behavior. Results demonstrated that global regulation significantly interacted with treatment condition in predicting change in child disruptive behavior. Specifically, higher levels of distress at baseline were associated with greater improvements in child disruptive behavior following the intervention. These findings are discussed in the context of the differential susceptibility hypothesis and highlight the importance of considering children's emotion regulation skills in the course of psychosocial treatment for young children born premature.
Developmental Psychobiology, 2016
Maternal prenatal anxiety is associated with infants' temperamental negative affectivity (NA), but it is unclear to what extent children vary in their susceptibility to prenatal influences. We tested a hypothesis that infants' respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic vagal tone and a potential marker of differential susceptibility to environmental influences, moderates the effects of maternal prenatal anxiety on the development of infant NA. Prenatal anxiety was assessed during the last trimester of pregnancy in a low-risk community sample. Infant NA, baseline RSA, and maternal postnatal anxiety were assessed at 8-10 months of infant age. Regression analyses were performed to predict infant NA on the basis of prenatal anxiety, infant baseline RSA, and their interaction (N = 173). Maternal prenatal anxiety and infant RSA interactively predicted infant NA at 8-10 months. Among infants with high RSA, a significant positive association between prenatal anxiety and infant NA was observed, whereas prenatal anxiety did not predict infant NA among infants with low RSA. Vagal tone, as indexed by baseline RSA, may provide a promising marker of differential susceptibility to the long-term effects of varying intrauterine conditions.
Developmental Psychobiology
The aim of the current study is to assess whether positive emotional exchanges (i.e., emotion coregulation) within the mother-child dyad play a protective role in children's physiological response to a distressing task. Specifically, we test whether positive emotion coregulation among mothers and their preschool-aged children is associated with children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at baseline, during, and following a frustration task. One-hundred Singaporean mother-child dyads (M childage = 3.5 years) participated in a standardized "Laughing Task" in which positive emotional constructs were measured. Children also participated in a frustration task while RSA was continuously monitored. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that greater maternal positive emotional responses to children were associated with child RSA at baseline and in recovery from frustration, but not during frustration. These findings have implications for the important role that positive emotion responsivity from mothers may play in children's developing autonomic response systems, and underscore the need for longitudinal work on this topic.
Developmental Psychobiology, 2015
The coordination of physiological processes between parents and infants is thought to support behaviors critical for infant adaptation, but we know little about parent-child physiological coregulation during the preschool years. The present study examined whether time-varying changes in parent and child respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) exhibited coregulation (acrossperson dynamics) accounting for individual differences in parent and child RSA, and whether there were differences in these parasympathetic processes by children's externalizing problems.
Developmental Psychobiology, 2019
Caregivers play an integral role in promoting children's emotion regulation, while children's individual physiology affects how they respond to the caregiving environment. Relatively little is known about how fathering influences toddler emotion regulation, particularly within African American and low‐income communities, where risk related to the development of emotion regulation is higher. This study investigated relations among fathering, toddler parasympathetic regulation, and toddler emotion regulation in a sample of 92 families. Fathering was assessed during two interactions: engagement following a stressor during a triadic task and a dyadic play task. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (resting and reactivity) was obtained as an index of toddler parasympathetic arousal. Findings demonstrated an association between fathers’ engagement poststressor and toddler emotion regulation. Toddler RSA moderated this association: toddlers with elevated levels of resting RSA benefitted fr...
2021
BACKGROUND There is limited knowledge on the physiological and behavioral pathways that may affect the developmental outcomes of preterm infants and particularly on the link between autonomic nervous system maturation and early social human behavior. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the way heart rate variability (HRV) parameters are related to emotional coordination in interactions of preterm and full-term infants with their parents in the first year of life and the possible correlation with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. OBJECTIVE The first objective is to investigate the relationship between emotional coordination and HRV in dyadic full-term infant–parent (group 1) and preterm infant–parent (group 2) interactions during the first postpartum year. The second objective is to examine the relationship of emotional coordination and HRV in groups 1 and 2 in the first postpartum year with the developmental outcomes of infants at 18 months. The third objectiv...
Cardiac vagal tone: Stability and relation to difficultness in infants and 3-year-Olds
Developmental Psychobiology, 1994
Psychophysiological studies of infants have found a relation between behavioral reactivity and indices of autonomic state. The relation between behavioral reactivity, assessed via maternal report, and autonomic state, assessed via cardiac vagal tone in 9-month-old infants was examined. Cardiac vagal tone was quantified by measuring the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia. High cardiac vagal tone was associated with greater behavioral reactivity, resulting in maternal reports of more difficult temperament. Stability of the two measures, cardiac vagal tone and difficult temperament, from 9 months to 3 years of age was demonstrated. In addition, 9-month cardiac vagal tone, independent of 9-month temperament, was related to 3-year difficultness with higher 9-month cardiac vagal tone being related to less-difficult 3-year behavior. 0 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Currently there is interest in the physiological correlates of individual differences in infant behavior (e.g., see Gunnar, 1990; Rothbart, 1990 for reviews). In contrast to research in adult personality (e.g., Eysenck, 1967, Strelau, 1983, Gray, 1970), which has examined both behavior and physiology, research in infant temperament has historically used maternal-report questionnaires to assess behavior and has treated the underlying physiological components as assumptions rather than measures. More recent efforts have focused on the relation of individual differences in physiological systems (e.g., hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) reactivity, autonomic state, brain wave activity) to individual differences in behaviors (e.g., negative emotionality, behavioral reactivity) (Gunnar, 1990). Psychophysiological research suggests that individual differences in physiological regulation are correlated with infant behavioral reactivity. Two other issues must be addressed in addition to demonstrating a correlation between physiology and individual Reprint requests should be sent to