Poster #34 - Examining the Association Between the P300 ERP, Parenting, and Externalizing Problems in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Harsh parenting practices robustly predict externalizing problems in children (Gershoff, 2002). However, the neural processes that mediate this effect are unknown. The P300 (P3) event-related potential (ERP) is a possible mechanism. The P3 is often elicited during an oddball paradigm where frequent and infrequent stimuli are presented. P3 amplitudes tend to be larger for infrequent than frequent stimuli and likely reflect attentional orienting to novelty. Meta-analytic findings have shown that smaller P3 amplitudes to infrequent stimuli are associated with externalizing problems (Gao & Raine, 2009). However, larger P3 amplitudes to infrequent stimuli have been associated with harsh parenting (Shackman & Pollack, 2014). These seemingly paradoxical findings may be reconciled by considering P3 amplitudes to frequent stimuli. Both harsh parenting and externalizing problems are implicated with deficits in distinguishing environmental cues, which may lead to an inappropriate social response such as aggression (Petersen et al., 2018; Shackman & Pollack, 2014). Distinguishing infrequent from frequent environmental stimuli elicits greater neural activity. Examining this difference in neural activity may provide a better operationalization of difficulties in novelty detection than relying solely on neural processing to infrequent stimuli. We hypothesize that smaller P3 difference waves will mediate the association between harsh parenting and externalizing behavior problems. Children (N=126) ages 3–7, their parents, and secondary caregivers participated in a longitudinal study. Parents self-reported harsh parenting practices. Parents and secondary caregivers reported children’s externalizing problems. Children completed a passive auditory oddball task where frequent and infrequent tones were played. Temporo-spatial principal component analysis (PCA) of the waveforms was performed. P3 amplitude difference waves were calculated by subtracting the infrequent from frequent PCA component peaks. Bivariate associations are in Table 1. In the full sample , harsh parenting was associated with externalizing problems, and marginally associated with P3 difference waves. Smaller difference waves were associated with externalizing problems. In 3–4-year-old children, bivariate associations demonstrated larger frequent and smaller infrequent amplitudes were marginally associated with externalizing problems. In structural equation models, P3 difference waves in 3–4-year-old children (but not 5–7-year-olds) were associated with externalizing problems after controlling for age, and socioeconomic status (see Figure 1). However, P3 difference waves did not mediate the association between harsh parenting and externalizing problems (β = 0.00, p = .972).
Overall, we did not find that P3 difference waves mediate the association between harsh parenting and externalizing problems. After controlling for covariates, harsh parenting was not associated with P3 amplitudes. Interestingly, this study is the first to demonstrate larger P3 amplitudes to frequent stimuli are associated with externalizing problems, while also replicating the finding that smaller P3 amplitudes to infrequent stimuli are associated with externalizing problems. It is possible that the difference between frequent and infrequent P3 amplitudes better captures the effect of novelty detection difficulties on externalizing problems, because it demonstrated incremental validity in 3–4-year-olds. Speculatively, children with externalizing problems show difficulties discriminating between environmental stimuli, particularly in early childhood. Given differential findings by age, future research should continue to examine the P3 and externalizing problems across early childhood.

Authors

• Ben Swanson, University of Iowa
  Presenting Author

• Micah Alan Williams, University of Iowa

• Isaac T. Petersen, University of Iowa