Relations Between 8-month-old Surgency, Parent Daily Hassles, and 12-month-old Baseline RSA

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Abstract

Baseline RSA is a widely used physiological marker of an individual’s regulatory capacity (Liew et al., 2011; Burt & Obrodovic, 2013), such that high baseline RSA is typically associated with a greater ability to regulate. The first year of life is a critical period for autonomic nervous system (ANS) development that may support physiological self-regulation well into childhood (Mulkey & Plessis, 2018). Prior research demonstrates that parenting hassles are an important contributor to parenting stress (Belue et al., 2015), which is in turn associated with ANS development. Parents who report higher daily hassles report that their children have more difficulties with behavioral regulation, including externalizing problems (Coplan et al., 2003). However, it is unclear whether parent’s daily hassles impact infants’ physiology. Additionally, individual child factors also moderate associations between parents’ daily hassles and child outcomes (Coplan et al., 2003).
Temperamental surgency is characterized by high energy level, high-intensity enjoyment seeking, low shyness, and high impulsivity (Rothbart & Putnam, 2002). While surgency has been linked to physiological reactivity (Stifter et al., 2010), little is known about the relation between surgency and resting RSA during the first year of life. Here we examine whether surgency in 8-month-olds and the frequency of parent’s daily hassles at 8 months interact to predict infants resting RSA at 12 months.
Data includes 155 infants and their primary caregivers at 8- and 12-months. Baseline RSA was measured across a 4-minute resting period. Frequency of daily experiences perceived as ‘hassles’ was assessed using the Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (PDHS; Crnic & Greenberg, 1990), and infant surgency was reported via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). We conducted a multiple moderated regression analysis to examine the moderating role of infant surgency in the relation between parenting hassles and infant’s resting RSA. Child sex, resting RSA at 8 months, and data collection site were incorporated as covariates.
More frequent parent hassles were significantly associated with higher resting RSA (b = .01, t = 2.27, p < .05), as was higher surgency at 8 months (b = .25, t = 1.99, p < .05). In addition, surgency approached significance as a moderating variable for the relation between parent hassles and resting RSA (b = -.02, t = -1.83, p = .07), such that there was a positive association between parents’ daily hassles and resting RSA for infants at low (-1SD) and average (mean) levels of surgency, but there were no associations between daily hassles and resting RSA for infants high in surgency.
Findings suggest that parent’s daily hassles and infant surgency both uniquely predict higher resting RSA, with trending effects suggesting that infant surgency may moderate the associations between parent hassles and resting RSA. The emergence of higher resting RSA may represent infants’ flexible adaptation to cope within a more stressful caregiving environment which can lead to an earlier maturation of regulatory systems, and compensation for individual temperament characteristics that require a greater degree of physiological regulation.

Group Authors

Yue Ma, Elizabeth A. Youatt, Anna M. Zhou, Vanessa LoBue, Kristin A. Buss, Koraly Pérez-Edgar

Authors

• Yue Ma, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Youatt, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna M Zhou, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Vanessa Lobue, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Koraly Elisa Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author