Poster #104 - Examining Associations between Infant Behavioral Inhibition, Autonomic Responses, and Regulatory Behaviors with Mothers

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Developing effective physiological and behavioral methods of regulation is an integral step for achieving positive socioemotional outcomes (Conradt & Ablow, 2010). Temperamental behavioral inhibition may play a large role in the development of regulatory mechanisms (Henderson et al., 2015). For example, infants who display more avoidance and higher sensitivity to stimuli are at risk for internalizing problems (Fox et al., 2015). In addition, measures of the autonomic nervous system, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, a measure of the parasympathetic nervous system, PNS) and pre-ejection period (PEP, a measure of the sympathetic nervous system, SNS) respectively, are known indicators of regulatory capacity (Roder et al., 2020). Lastly, specific infant regulatory behaviors (i.e., distraction) have been associated with more effective emotion regulation (Planalp & Braungart-Rieker, 2015). Studies have rarely measured both infant PNS and SNS activity in the context of emotion regulation (Suurland et al., 2018). Despite evidence that supports a link between behavioral inhibition and regulatory outcomes, very little work has measured behavioral inhibition and regulatory indicators when they are most malleable—during infancy (Stifter et al., 2010). The current study utilized multiple methods (i.e., physiological, observational, and experimenter report) to examine associations between infant behavioral inhibition, autonomic cardiac responses, and regulatory behaviors across early infancy.

Participants were part of a larger longitudinal study of infant socioemotional development with mothers, fathers, and infants at 4-, 6-, and 8-months of age. The current sample only included data with mothers from 4- and 8-month timepoints. Parents and infants completed in a 3-minute baseline and Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) task in which cardiac physiology was recorded (Tronick et al., 1978). Infant behavioral inhibition (irritability, positive affect, social approach) was calculated from experimenter ratings of temperament across the laboratory visit (IBR, Bayley, 1969; Stifter et al., 2008); higher scores indicated greater behavioral inhibition. Infant RSA suppression and PEP activation were determined by subtracting still-face scores from play scores; higher scores indicated greater regulatory capacity. Infant regulatory behaviors (parent-focused, distraction, and self-soothing) were rated by trained coders during the still-face episode (Ekas et al., 2013); higher proportion scores indicated greater regulatory behavior occurrence.

Preliminary multiple regression models, which only included infant behavioral inhibition and RSA suppression at 4 months and regulatory behaviors at 8 months with mothers (n=91, missing data was imputed using the EM algorithm in SPSS), revealed several significant main effects. For the distraction models, increased irritability was associated with less distraction (β=-.34, p=.001); increased positive affect was associated with more distraction (β=-.26, p=.01). The look-to-the parent models followed a reverse pattern of findings (irritability: β=.35, p<.001; positive affect: β=--.26, p=.01). For the self-soothe models, decreased social approach was associated with more self-soothing (β=--.26, p=.01). Subsequent models will include infant PEP activation. Overall, results indicate that behaviorally inhibited infants may be using less effective regulatory behaviors and stress the importance of examining other individual differences (e.g., infant RSA/PEP) that may underly the development of complex processes such as regulatory capacity.

Authors

• Alyssa Swift, Western Kentucky University
  Presenting Author

• Diane M Lickenbrock, Western Kentucky University

• Logan Rios, Western Kentucky University