Childhood Parental Warmth Predicts Heart Rate Variability and Cardiovascular Health after Midlife

• In Event: 3-211 - How Does Parenting Become Biologically Embedded? Integrating Insights from Neuroimaging, Immunology, and Electrophysiology

Integrative Statement

Objectives: Previous research has found that children who experience warmer parenting tend to exhibit better health outcomes across the lifespan, but the underlying biological mechanisms remain to be fully understood. Past studies have predominantly focused on the potentially mediating role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, and much less is known about the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) physiology in forecasting long-term health. To address this gap, the current study investigated whether ANS physiology might act as a mediator between childhood parental warmth and health outcomes after midlife. Specifically, we focused on the role of high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), an index of parasympathetic influence over cardiac activity, which has been positively associated with optimal health outcomes.

Methods: The present study used data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study, which began with a survey of a nationally representative sample of adults. At this initial time point, participants reported retrospectively on parental warmth experienced during childhood (before age 18). Ten years later, a sub-sample was invited for a follow-up laboratory visit involving electrophysiological measures (n = 1,105 had available data for present analyses). At this assessment, participants were on average 56.9 years old (SD = 11.3); 56% female, 44% male; and 80% Caucasian, 16% African American, 4% other. HF-HRV was extracted from an 11-minute seated baseline recording, as part of a longer physiological protocol involving cognitive assessments. Nine years later, participants provided information about their physical health. We conducted two structural equation models to investigate if baseline HF-HRV mediates the relationship between childhood parental warmth and two physical health measures: (1) cardiovascular health (presence or absence of a physician-diagnosed cardiovascular problem), and (2) global self-evaluated health. Both health measures were coded such that higher scores represented better health. All analyses controlled for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, smoking history, and exercise habits.

Results: Analyses revealed a significant positive association between childhood parental warmth and HF-HRV (β = .11, p = .014). The subsequent positive association between HF-HRV and cardiovascular health was also significant (β = .09, p = .018). Mediation analysis revealed a marginally significant indirect effect of parental warmth, through HF-HRV, on cardiovascular health (β = .01, p = .096), rendering the direct path in the model non-significant (β = .01, p = .91) and suggesting full statistical mediation. This effect was specific to cardiovascular health, as the association between HF-HRV and global self-evaluated health was not significant (β = .04, p = .316). As such, the indirect effect of parental warmth, through HF-HRV, on self-evaluated health was also not significant (β = .004, p = .367). There was, however, a marginally significant direct effect of parental warmth on self-evaluated physical health (β = .10, p = .062).

Conclusions: These results are consistent with a scenario whereby parenting that is high in warmth may contribute to the development of more flexible ANS physiology in offspring, potentially resulting in better cardiovascular health outcomes after midlife. Future studies should examine these pathways prospectively, using observational measures of parenting.

Authors

• Nicholas Alen, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Camelia E. Hostinar, University of California-Davis
  Non-Presenting Author