Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity During Hot and Cool Measures of Self-Regulation Predicts School Readiness

• In Event: 1-214 - Self-Regulation and Early School Success: New Perspectives and Methodologies

Integrative Statement

A comprehensive definition of self-regulation includes not only volitional processes of cognitive and behavioral control, but also the involuntary activity of various neurophysiological systems (Blair & Raver, 2012), including the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). Individual differences in preschoolers' levels of PNS activity under conditions of rest have been linked to effortful (Taylor et al., 2015) and inhibitory control (Holochwost et al., 2018), both of which predict early success in school (Valiente et al., 2007; Willoughby et al. 2016). Theory (Porges & Furman, 2012) and a small body of prior research (Marcovitch et al., 2010; Obradović et al., 2010) suggest that individual differences in PNS activity under challenging conditions should also predict school readiness, but no study of which we are aware has investigated this possibility. In this prospective longitudinal study we examined how in PNS activity in response to two types of challenging task – a “hot” task of inhibitory control and a battery of “cool” executive functions (EFs) tasks (Mueller et al., 2002) – were related to school readiness.
Data were collected from 102 4-year-old children (51% female, 51% Caucasian) at the beginning and end of the preschool year. In the fall RSA data were collected at baseline (RSAB) and while children participated in the gift-wrap task (Kochanska et al., 2000), a measure of inhibitory control, and four measures of EFs tasks (Willoughby et al., 2010). The following spring children completed the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (Bracken, 2007). Change in RSA (ΔRSA) was calculated for each episode of the gift-wrap task and the four EFs tasks by subtracting mean RSA during each episode or task from RSAB, after Moore and Calkins (2004). Values of ΔRSA were highly inter-correlated across episodes of the gift-wrap task (r (65, 67) = [.67, .93], p < .001) and EFs tasks (r (68, 71) = [.78, .84], p < .001), and therefore a composite ΔRSA score was calculated for the gift-wrap (α = .93) and EFs tasks (α = .95). Scores on the BSRA were regressed on ΔRSA during the gift-wrap and EF tasks in a pair of separate models. Both models included Headstart enrollment (a proxy for familial socioeconomic status), race, and whether students had a developmental disability and/or were classified as an English language learner.
The results of both models were similar: Headstart enrollment, race, IEP and ΔRSA (whether in response to the gift-wrap or EFs tasks) collectively accounted for a substantial (approximately 40%) of the variance in BSRA scores. In both models, ΔRSA uniquely accounted for a significant portion of the variance (6-7%) and in both models higher levels of RSA relative to baseline were associated with better performance on the BSRA. These results are consistent with those reported in a recent review (Holzman & Bridgett, 2017), and suggest that maintaining higher levels of PNS activity under challenging conditions – which may support of state of calm engagement (Porges, 2007) – predicts higher levels of school readiness.

Authors

• Steven Holochwost, WolfBrown
  Presenting Author

• Cathi Propper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Guan Wang, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer L Coffman, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author