Poster #12 - Associations between Adolescents’ Heart Rate Variability and Anxiety using Ecological Momentary Assessment

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

One in 59 youth is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Maenner et al., 2020), with estimates of the co-occurrence of anxiety disorders ranging from 42 to 84% (e.g., Kent & Siminoff, 2017). Autistic youth with co-occurring anxiety exhibit significantly more self-injurious behavior, more depressive symptoms, poorer relationships with teachers, peers, and family members, and higher levels of aggressive behavior relative to autistic youth without anxiety symptoms. Identifying anxiety symptoms in autistic youth is difficult due to problems with self-report and recent evidence suggesting they may exhibit distinct forms of anxiety not captured in current measures of anxiety (i.e., distinct anxiety). Heart rate variability (HRV), whether at rest or in response to stimuli, is one potential biological indicator of co-occurring anxiety. HRV has been identified as atypical in autistic youth relative to nonautistic youth, such that anxiety was associated with reduced HRV (e.g., Guy et al., 2021). However, these studies have lacked ecological validity (e.g., interacting with a research assistant rather than a friend or same-aged peer, interacting in a lab context), leaving questions regarding whether anxiety symptoms are associated with HRV in autistic youth in real-world social-interactive contexts.
Therefore, the goal of the proposed research is to examine whether anxiety symptoms are associated with HRV collected during real world social interactions. Based on the few studies examining HRV and anxiety symptoms in lab settings, we hypothesize that there will be a negative association between HRV and anxiety symptoms: lower HRV will be associated with higher anxiety symptoms.
Autistic and nonautistic youth aged 11 to 14 (n = 40) will participate in 5 days of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) while also wearing the Zephyr BioHarness 3 and biomodule, a non-invasive device that captures both respiration and heart rate data (see Figure 1). Participants will respond to the following question: “Please rate how you were feeling just before the phone beeped” for several feelings (e.g., happy, calm, anxious) on 5-point Likert scales from ‘Not at all’ to ‘Extremely’ at least twice daily for 5 days. The feeling of interest for the current study is “anxious.” HRV data will be processed using Kubios (Tarvainen et al., 2014). A multilevel model with EMA responses to how anxious they felt and HRV nested within person to examine within-person effects will be run. Age and gender will be explored as potential covariates.
Implications: This will be the first study to date to examine associations between anxiety symptoms and HRV in real-world social interactive contexts in both autistic and nonautistic adolescents which will provide preliminary evidence as to whether HRV is a transdiagnostic biomarker of anxiety symptoms.

Authors

• Heather Yarger, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Paige Munshell, University of Maryland - College Park

• Emma Condy, National Institute of Mental Health

• Kuburat Olamide Oladiran

• Angel Sia Dunbar, University of Maryland - College Park

• Elizabeth Redcay, University of Maryland - College Park