The Relations of Emotional Parenting and Parental Psychopathology on Chinese Children’s Psychopathology: Moderation by Parent-Child Physiological Synchrony

• In Event: Examining Parental Effects on Risks for Child Psychopathology: The Role of Psychophysiological Markers

Abstract

Parental psychopathology and negative parenting are major risk factors for children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (Burstein et al., 2012). It is, therefore, important to identify factors that may buffer or exacerbate the risks associated with parental psychopathology and negative parenting. Most studies have focused on individual-level factors, whereas little attention has been directed to dyad-level factors. Parent-child physiological synchrony can be moderating factor at the dyadic level (Feldman, 2007). Research has indicated that physiological synchrony is a complex process and its meaning for child adjustment may be varied by the context in which it is assessed (Davis et al., 2018). Specifically, positive synchrony may be more salient and more closely correlated with positive dyadic behaviors during interactions characterized as less stressful. However, negative physiological synchrony in the context of stress may be more adaptive, such that one becomes dysregulated and the other helps to stabilize the partner’s biological activity (Suveg et al., 2019). Thus, the current study examined whether dyadic synchrony in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) would moderate the relations of parental psychopathology and emotional parenting on child psychopathology. It was hypothesized that parental psychopathology and negative parenting behaviors would be positively correlated with child psychopathological symptoms, however, these associations would be attenuated among dyads exhibited negative RSA synchrony during stressful interactions.

150 Chinese parents (M age = 39.22 years, SD = 4.07 years, 121 mothers) and their 6- to 12-year old children (M age = 8.54 years, SD = 1.67 years, 63 girls) participated in this study. Parents reported on their own psychopathology symptoms using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90; Derogatis, 1994) and their child’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991). Emotional parenting behaviors (i.e., parental psychological control and emotional unavailability) captured in parent-child interaction were coded. Physiological activity (i.e., RSA) was collected during a 4-min conflict discussion task. RSA synchrony was computed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Each child’s RSA was modeled as a function of an intercept, and a slope testing the effect of parent’s RSA at a concurrent time (person-centered) on child current RSA. The Empirical Bayes (EB) coefficients were extracted as an estimation of the strength and direction of RSA synchrony.

Results indicated that RSA synchrony during conflict discussion moderated the association between parental psychological control and child internalizing symptoms, and the link between parental psychopathology and child externalizing symptoms after controlling for parent and child sex. Specifically, there were positive associations between parental psychological control and child internalizing symptoms, and parental psychopathology and child externalizing symptoms in the context of positive RSA synchrony (.16, +1 SD above the mean). However, in the context of negative RSA synchrony (-.05, -1 SD below the mean), these associations were not significant.

Authors

• Hui Wang, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Zhuo Rachel Han, Beijing Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author