Caregiving Origins of Autonomic Regulation in Middle Childhood

• In Event: 3-217 - Promoting the development of children’s autonomic regulation: The role of parents and the parent-child relationship

Integrative Statement

Supportive early caregiving experiences are theorized to shape the development of the physiological systems involved in healthy emotion regulation (Cassidy, 1994; Diamond, 2015; Kopp, 1982). In particular, low resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) activity and high RSA reactivity have been linked to risk for emotion dysregulation and psychopathology (Beauchaine, 2015). The present study examined whether attachment quality during infancy and sensitive caregiving during early childhood predicted healthy RSA activity during middle childhood among a sample of children at risk for emotional dysregulation. In addition, we tested whether the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention, which aims to improve parental sensitivity and children’s attachment security, would also affect children’s RSA activity in middle childhood.
Participants were 97 children (52% female) whose families were referred from Child Protective Services due to allegations of child maltreatment. When children were infants, parents were randomized to receive either the ABC intervention (n = 43) or a control intervention (n = 54). Children’s attachment security was assessed with the Strange Situation following completion of the intervention, and parental sensitivity was coded from parent-child free-play interactions across early childhood. When children were nine years old, their RSA activity was collected at rest (baseline), in response to a parent-child interaction (PCI), and in response to a standardized frustration task (ER; Goldsmith & Reilly, 1993). For present analyses, outcomes were average baseline RSA and RSA reactivity to each task (calculated as a difference score from baseline periods preceding each task).
Path modeling tested ABC, attachment security, and sensitivity as predictors of RSA at rest as well as RSA reactivity to the PCI and the ER task. Receiving ABC predicted higher resting RSA (B = .03, p = .03, β = .25), but was not significantly related to RSA reactivity (PCI: B = -.01, p = .60, β = -.07; ER: B = -.01, p = .57, β = -.04). Attachment security predicted less RSA reactivity to the frustration task (B = .01, p = .01, β = .13), but was not significantly related to resting RSA (B = -.001, p = .89, β = -.02) or PCI reactivity (B = -.004, p = .59, β = -.07). Parental sensitivity was not significantly related to the RSA variables.
Overall, results indicate that receiving ABC and having formed a secure attachment in infancy predict distinct RSA outcomes in middle childhood. Receiving ABC was associated with higher resting RSA than the control intervention, and secure attachment in early childhood predicted less RSA reactivity to frustration than insecure attachment. Future research may identify the mechanism by which ABC impacts children’s resting RSA, and how attachment affects children’s RSA reactivity to frustration. In addition, as low resting RSA and excessive RSA reactivity have been linked to psychopathology, future research may investigate the behavioral implications of these RSA effects.

Authors

• Alexandra R Tabachnick, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Lee Raby, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison Goldstein, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsay Zajac, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mary Dozier, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author