Adrenocortical Reactivity Moderates the Associations between Interparental Conflict, Emotional Reactivity, and School Adjustment

• In Event: Individual Differences in Individual’s Subjective Experiences of Interparental Conflict: Examining Heterogeniety in Developmental Risk Pathways

Abstract

According to emotional security theory, associations between interparental conflict and children’s psychological adjustment are mediated by children’s emotional reactivity, characterized by dysregulated distress and diminished affiliative behavior. Although research has repeatedly documented emotional reactivity as a mediator of children’s vulnerability to interparental conflict, significant individual differences in the power of emotional reactivity to explain the risk underscore the importance of identifying moderators. Children’s physiological reactivity has been proposed to explain this heterogeneity. Although the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis has been identified as a stress-sensitive physiological system, little is known about the role of children’s HPA axis reactivity in modulating how children emotionally respond and adjust to interparental conflict. To address this gap, the goal of the present study was to test whether the mediating role of children’s emotional reactivity in the association between interparental conflict and their psychological problems varied as a function of their cortisol reactivity to conflict.

Participants included 243 mothers, fathers, and their preschool children at three annual waves of data collection (W1 Mage = 4.6). At Waves 1 and 2, families participated in an interparental conflict task in which parents attempted to resolve common disagreements for ten minutes while the child was playing in the same room. At Wave 1, trained coders rated the interactions for dimensions of interparental conflict and saliva assessments were collected prior to and 20 minutes after the conflict. At Waves 1 and 2, coders rated children’s emotional reactivity in response to the interparental conflict task. Finally, teachers completed assessments of children’s school adjustment at Waves 1 and 3. Consistent with prior research on emotional reactivity as a mediator, SEM analyses indicated that Wave 1 interparental conflict predicted increases in emotional reactivity from Wave 1 to 2, which, in turn, predicted increases in school problems from Wave 1 to 3. To examine moderated mediation, multiplicative terms were computed from cross products of cortisol reactivity and each of the three interparental conflict indicators. The association between Wave 1 interparental conflict and Wave 2 emotional reactivity significantly varied as a function of cortisol reactivity (see Figure 1). To further assess the moderated-mediation hypothesis, we estimated the conditional indirect path involving interparental conflict, emotional reactivity, and school problems at high (+1) and low (-1) levels of cortisol reactivity. Consistent with the above findings, emotional reactivity mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and school adjustment difficulties at high cortisol reactivity, 95% CI = .0004 to .0470. In contrast, a comparable analysis of the indirect path at low levels of cortisol reactivity was not significant, 95% CI = -.0110 to .0160. In support of biological sensitivity to context theory, the graphical plot reflected a cross-over interaction (see Figure 2). Children with high cortisol reactivity experienced greater emotional reactivity when exposed to interparental conflict but experienced disproportionately less emotional reactivity when exposed to low levels of interparental conflict. Findings will be discussed in terms of how they advance emotional security and BSC theories.

Authors

• Joanna Pearson, University of Rochester
  Presenting Author

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melissa L Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author