Poster #135 - Individual Differences in Automatic Nervous System Activity and the Relation Between Early Toddler Dysregulation and Childhood Externalizing Behaviors

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Externalizing behaviors typically decrease from toddlerhood to school entry. However, some children follow stable, or increasing levels of externalizing behavior during childhood, which can have implications for socioemotional difficulties during adolescence and adulthood. By examining individual differences associated with trajectories of externalizing behaviors, we can identify those children at risk for later externalizing disorders.
Emotion regulation (ER) is an early predictor of externalizing behaviors in early childhood. Toddlers with poor ER were more likely to exhibit externalizing behaviors during childhood (Hill et al.,2006). Additionally, individual differences in resting autonomic nervous system activity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) reflect the capacity for physiological regulation during stressful situations (Calkins&Keane,2004). Therefore, such activity may moderate associations between early dysregulation and later externalizing behaviors. The current study aimed to examine the impact of early toddler dysregulation, including parent-reported and physiological, on trajectories of externalizing behaviors in early childhood.
Data from 174 children and families (83 female; 85% white, .6% black, 1.7% Hispanic, 4.6% Asian American, 1.1% American Indian, 2.3% mixed/other; 45% income>$60,000) was used. Parents reported on toddler dysregulation at18-months via the Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment, and externalizing behaviors via the McArthur Health Behavior Questionnaire at ages 4, 5, and 6. RSA collected at age 2 during a resting task was used as a physiological index of regulation.
An unconditional growth model with intercept and slope for externalizing behaviors showed that externalizing behaviors decreased from age 4 to 6 (2=3.19, p>.05, CFI=.99, TLI=0.99, RMSEA=.07, SRMR=.03). A conditional growth model with 18-month dysregulation, age 2 RSA and their interaction predicting the intercept and slope controlling for sex suggest that higher levels of 18-month toddler dysregulation were associated with more externalizing behaviors at age 4 (intercept), B=.05, p=.02, with less linear decrease (i.e., stability) in externalizing behaviors from age 4 to 6 (B=0.03, p=.01). This interaction was associated with externalizing behavior trajectories from age 4 to 6 (intercept: B=.04, p=.01; slope: B=-0.02, p=.01). At lower levels of resting RSA, toddler dysregulation was significantly associated with more positive slope, B=0.02, p=.04, but not the intercept, B=0.01, p>.05. Toddler dysregulation was significantly associated with more externalizing behaviors at age 4 (B=0.07, p=.04), but was not associated with the slope, B=0.03, p>.05, when resting RSA was high.
We found evidence for the moderating role of resting RSA in the relation between toddler behavioral dysregulation and trajectories of early childhood externalizing behaviors. Across all children, externalizing behaviors decrease from age 4 to 6, but individual differences in both behavioral and autonomic regulation may identify those children who exhibit stable or increasing levels of externalizing behaviors across early childhood. Toddlers high in 18-month behavioral dysregulation and low in age 2 autonomic regulation showed increased levels of externalizing behaviors in early childhood, while such behaviors decrease among toddlers lower in both behavioral and autonomic dysregulation. Regardless of 18-month dysregulation, toddlers high in autonomic regulation showed decreasing levels of externalizing behaviors from 4 to 6. These results highlight the importance of using multimethod approaches when examining the role of regulation in externalizing behaviors.

Authors

• Michelle Lee Ramos, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Anna M Zhou, University of Utah

• Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park