Dyadic Synchrony Among Preschool Aged Children and Their Parents Currently Experiencing Homelessness

• In Event: 2-020 - Dynamics of Physiological Processes in Interpersonal Contexts: Correlates and Outcomes

Integrative Statement

Polyvagal theory suggests that the parasympathetic nervous system facilitates self-regulation and social engagement (Porges, 2007). During infancy, physiological synchrony between parents and their children may play an important role in helping children develop physiological and emotional regulation (e.g. Feldman et al., 2011). Although less is known about these processes in the preschool years (Lukenheimer et al., 2015), the temporal dynamics of these processes likely become more complex, as children show increasing agency in parent-child interactions. Understanding these processes among families experiencing adversity is even more important given the role that adaptive self-regulation plays in resilience in the context adversity (e.g. Conradt et al., 2014). The present study aims to clarify these temporal dynamics, their continuity across inter-personal demands, and relations with broader indices of child behavior.

The current sample consisted of 4-6-year-old children and their parents (N = 33) experiencing homelessness. Cardiac inter-beat-interval data were recorded while dyads completed a set of interaction tasks: one talking baseline, two problem-solving discussions, and three interactive games. We estimated second-to-second respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)—an indicator of parasympathetic functioning—using a moving-window technique (RSAseconds; Gates et al., 2015). Within-dyad and between-dyad differences in RSA were modeled using Residual Dynamic Structural Equation models (RDSEM; Asparouhov et al., 2018). RDSEM simultaneously models: (1) contemporaneous and cross-lagged within-dyad ‘couplings’ in RSA; (2) between-dyad variation in couplings, and (3) if between-dyad dynamics are associated with behavioral data (Figure 1). For brevity, we discuss findings from only the baseline (TB) and conflict discussion (CD) tasks.

Exploratory findings suggest both similarities and differences in the magnitude, direction, and lead-lag structure of parent and child RSA synchronies across the TB and CD tasks. When considered on average, the within-dyad parameters were similar across the TB and CD tasks (Table 1). There was a positive ‘coupling’ between real-time contemporaneous changes in maternal and child RSA (TB: Ψ_(stand.) = .15; CD Ψ_(stand.) = .21), but no evidence of lead-lag relations in RSA, on average. Importantly, there were noteworthy between-dyad differences in the dyad couplings. Despite null lead-lag relations on average, the magnitude and direction of lead-lag relations varied substantially between dyads. Irrespective of task, parents in dyads with stronger contemporaneous RSA couplings tended to rate their children lower in general prosocial behavior. However, many of the between-dyad relations were unique to task (non-colored cells), and, of those that were similar across tasks (colored cells), the direction of associations differed between tasks. For example, the positive correlation between dyad autoregressive effects in TB suggests directional alignment between parents’ and children’s RSA. In contrast, the same relation is negatively correlated during the CD task, suggesting a change in RSA dynamics in the context of emotionally salient content.

Our results suggest that RSA dynamics between parents and children show continuities and discontinuities across different types of interactions, on average, but also noteworthy differences in these dynamics between dyads. Clarifying these (dis)continuities across parenting contexts and dyad may be central to understanding the impacts of physiological synchrony on self-regulation development in children facing adversity.

Authors

• Alyssa R Palmer, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Isabella Stallworthy, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann S. Masten, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dan Berry, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author