Maternal Negative Affect Moderates Behavioral and Physiological Concordance in Latinx and Black Mother-Child Dyads

• In Event: Emerging Research on Maternal Mental Health

Abstract

Positive behavioral synchrony (PBS) between mothers and children involves the bidirectional exchange of verbal and non-verbal communication (Davis et al., 2017). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) synchrony reflects concordance between mother-child physiological states (Feldman, 2011). Both PBS and RSA synchrony are essential components of the mother-child relationship and can be undermined by internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive symptoms; Connell et al., 2011; Lovejoy et al., 2000). Latinx and Black families experience contextual stressors that may contribute to heightened internalizing symptoms (Murry et al., 2001; West et al., 2022), yet minimal research has examined relations between internalizing symptoms, PBS, and RSA synchrony in families from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. We hypothesize that PBS will be lowest and RSA synchrony will be negative in the context of maternal depressive and child internalizing symptoms as well as mother and child negative affect (NA).
Participants were 100 Latina and Black mothers (Mage = 34.48 years, SD = 6.39 years) and their children (Mage = 6.83 years, SD = 1.50). Dyads engaged in a stress task where the child was instructed to build a developmentally-advanced LEGO figure. Video-recordings and RSA data were collected continuously throughout the task. Videos were later coded for PBS. We also coded for mother and child NA given that: 1) NA is visible to both members of the dyad; 2) internalizing disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression) are not usually diagnosed until later in adolescence (Bitsko et al., 2022) so NA may provide a better source information regarding internalizing symptoms in younger children; and 3) mothers from ethnic minority groups may underreport their own and their child’s levels of psychopathology (Johnson & Padilla, 2019; Niditch & Varela, 2011) perhaps for fear of discrimination or cultural pressures to appear composed and unaffected by personal stressors. Mothers reported on their depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Kroenke et al., 2001) and their child’s internalizing symptoms with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Hypothesized relations were analyzed using multilevel modeling in Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM; Raudenbush et al., 2019) and multiple linear regression in SPSS (IBM Software Version 27.0).
Maternal NA was negatively associated with PBS (B = -1.11, SE = 0.36, p = .002). Maternal NA also moderated RSA concordance between mothers and their children (γ = -0.15, p = .017). Follow-up analyses found that dyads with higher levels of maternal NA during the stress task showed stronger negative RSA synchrony (M = -0.21, SD = 0.08) than dyads with lower maternal NA who showed weak, negative synchrony (M = -0.02, SD = 0.05). Maternal depressive symptoms, child internalizing symptoms and child NA were not significantly associated with PBS nor RSA synchrony.
Results highlight the potency of maternal NA on PBS and RSA synchrony in Latinx and Black mother-child dyads. Findings build upon prior work showing that NA may be a salient factor underlying internal distress and explain variations in both PBS and RSA synchrony. Study findings aid in developing a nuanced understanding of various forms of parent-child synchrony within Latinx and Black families.

Authors

• Molly Hale, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Kayley Morrow, University of Georgia

• Andrea Marie George, University of Georgia

• Amy Gayer

• Margaret O'Brien Caughy, University of Georgia

• Cynthia Mary Suveg, University of Georgia