Domain-Specific Examinations Linking Youth Coping and Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Cardiac Autonomic Functioning

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Abstract

Salient social and academic challenges characterize early adolescence, and the use of effective coping strategies can predict better social and academic adjustment (Compass et al., 2017; Skinner & Saxton, 2019). Moreover, youth’s cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, centrally involved in stress responses and regulation, may also contribute to their adjustment. The ANS is comprised of two branches, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS; mobilizes metabolic resources to respond to stress) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS; down-regulates SNS, relaxation and reinstatement of equilibrium in non-stressful contexts). Although some studies have examined PNS x Coping interactions (Erath & Tu, 2014), the role of the mutual influence of the SNS and PNS is less well-understood. According to the autonomic space model (Bernston et al., 2008), which accounts for both SNS and PNS activation, differences in dispositions of cardiac autonomic balance (CAB; sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance) and cardiac autonomic regulation (CAR; limited or flexible autonomic capacity) can confer benefit or risk for individual adjustment by moderating environmental influence. We examined youth CAB/CAR as moderators of the prospective associations between youth coping with social and academic stress and their adjustment in the social and academic domains, respectively.

At Time 1 (T1), 100 youth (53% boys; 57% White; Mage = 11.05 years, SD = .33) participated. Youth cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) baseline, indicators of SNS and PNS functioning, respectively, were collected continuously during a 3-min baseline task at T1. CAB and CAR baseline were computed according to recommendations (Bernston et al., 2008), such that higher CAB scores reflect greater parasympathetic to sympathetic functioning, and higher CAR scores reflect greater coactivation of PNS and SNS. At T1, youth also reported on their engagement coping with social stress (Connor-Smith et al., 2000) and adaptive coping with academic stress (Skinner et al., 2013). At T1 and T2 (~7 months later), youth-reported friendship quality (Parker & Asher, 1993) and behavioral and emotional school engagement (Skinner et al., 2008) and teacher-reported peer victimization (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) and academic functioning (Schwartz et al., 2002) were assessed.

Results from separate regression analyses (Table 1) consistently revealed the moderating role of CAR baseline in the association between T1 coping and T2 adjustment in both social and academic domains. Tests of simple slopes (Figure 1) showed that more engagement/adaptive coping predicted better social and academic adjustment over time for youth who exhibited higher CAR baseline (coactivation or greater sympathetic and parasympathetic activation). No association emerged for youth who demonstrated lower CAR baseline (coinhibition or limited sympathetic and parasympathetic activation). The mostly null findings for CAB baseline (not presented) will be discussed in the presentation.

Together, the findings support the role of flexible cardiac autonomic regulatory capacity in conferring benefits of engagement/adaptive coping for youths’ social and academic adjustment over time. Findings highlight the significance of considering the interactive contribution of stress regulation at behavioral and physiological levels on youth adjustment as well as the joint functioning of parasympathetic and sympathetic in denoting physiological stress regulation.

Authors

• Xiaomei Li, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Tianying Cai, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Virnaliz Jimenez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly M. Tu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author