3-217 - Promoting the development of children’s autonomic regulation: The role of parents and the parent-child relationship

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children’s physiological regulation is thought to develop in the context of the parent-child relationship. For example, sensitive parents respond to their children’s distress in a timely manner, preventing prolonged arousal and distress and scaffolding the development of self-regulation. The central aim of this symposium is to present cutting-edge evidence regarding the role of parents and the parent-child relationship in the development of healthy autonomic regulation, with a focus on vulnerable children from infancy to middle childhood. Interventions that may support parents in the promotion of physiological regulation in their children are highlighted.
The first paper sets the stage by describing the dynamic interplay of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and the impact of breastfeeding as the child’s cardiac autonomic balance (CAB) develops. The second paper introduces the effects of prenatal maternal stress and mothers’ bonding with their own parents on their infants’ respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity during the Still-Face Paradigm. The third paper describes the impact of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy on autonomic regulation for children in early childhood. The fourth paper discusses the impact of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention and infant attachment security on autonomic regulation for CPS-referred children in middle childhood.
The present symposium highlights the influence of parenting and parent-child relationships, as well as associated interventions, on the development of autonomic regulation from infancy to middle childhood. Discussion will emphasize this developmental perspective, as well as implications for prevention and intervention with children who are at risk for dysregulation.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Alexandra R Tabachnick, University of Delaware

Individual Presentations

• Developmental Antecedents of Cardiac Autonomic Balance in Infancy - Presenting Author: Kelsey M Quigley, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Penina Backer, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Ginger A Moore, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Cindy Stifter, Pennsylvania State University

• The Effect of Acute Prenatal Stress and a Mother’s own Caregiving History on Infant Autonomic Regulation - Presenting Author: Mindy Brown, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Terrell, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Brendan Ostlund, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Sheila Crowell, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Elisabeth Conradt, University of Utah

• Improvements in Children’s Behavioral and Parasympathetic Regulation Following PCIT for Child Welfare Families - Presenting Author: Elizabeth A. Skowron, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: David DeGarmo, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Norman Wells, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Maria Lynn Schweer-Collins, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Carolyn M. Scholtes, University of Oregon

• Caregiving Origins of Autonomic Regulation in Middle Childhood - Presenting Author: Alexandra R Tabachnick, 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