Poster #22 - Respiratory sinus arrhythmia interacts with risk exposure to predict externalizing problems in middle childhood

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Integrative Statement

Although children exposed to early adversity such as poverty and maltreatment are generally at risk for the development of externalizing behavior problems (Shaw et al., 1998), there is heterogeneity in children’s individual outcomes. One factor that may help explain these varied outcomes is respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a physiological indicator of emotion regulation. Low resting RSA and high RSA reactivity have been linked to externalizing problems in children and adults (Beauchaine, 2015). The goal of the current study was to evaluate whether associations between early adversity and externalizing problems are conditional on children’s RSA at rest and RSA reactivity to frustration.
Participants were 157 children (48.4% female) in middle childhood. Two-thirds of the children (n = 97) were recruited in infancy following a referral from Child Protective Services (CPS) due to allegations of maltreatment. A non-CPS-referred matched comparison sample (n = 60) was recruited in middle childhood. Parents reported on children’s externalizing problems on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) at age nine (M = 9.47, SD = 0.34). At the same assessment, children’s RSA activity was measured while at rest and in response to a frustration task (adapted from the Impossibly Perfect Circles task; Goldsmith & Reilly, 1993). Child gender was included in analyses as a covariate, and resting RSA was included as a covariate in RSA reactivity models.
Results indicated that children with CPS involvement had more externalizing problems than children without CPS involvement (β = .27, p = .002). This effect was moderated by RSA at rest (interaction term: β = .31, p = .02) and RSA reactivity to frustration (interaction term: β = -.43, p = .04). Simple slopes indicated that for children who exhibited average (50th percentile) or higher than average (84th percentile) resting RSA, CPS involvement was significantly associated with elevated levels of externalizing problems (50th percentile: B = 3.76, p = .009; 84th percentile: B = 7.34, p < .001). For children who exhibited lower resting RSA (16th percentile), CPS involvement was unrelated to externalizing problems (B = 1.02, p = .60). With regard to RSA reactivity, for children who exhibited average or greater than average RSA reactivity (i.e., RSA decrease from baseline to challenge), CPS involvement was associated with elevated levels of externalizing problems (50th percentile: B = 3.70, p = .01; 16th percentile: B = 7.31, p < .001). For children who exhibited low RSA reactivity or RSA increase (86th percentile), CPS involvement was unrelated to externalizing problems (B = 1.69, p = .87).
Altogether, these results suggest that children who are exposed to early adversity (i.e., CPS involvement) are more likely to develop elevated externalizing behavior problems only if they also exhibit a biological vulnerability (i.e., high resting RSA or high RSA reactivity to frustration). Although excessive RSA reactivity has been previously established as an indicator of emotion dysregulation, high resting RSA is typically considered an indicator of good emotion regulation. More research is needed to understand how low RSA activity may benefit samples exposed to adversity.

Authors

• Alexandra R Tabachnick, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Christina Moore, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lee Raby, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison Goldstein, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsay Zajac, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Dozier, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author