Tuning the Heartstrings: Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Across Caregiving Contexts in Early Childhood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) modulates children’s metabolic activity to support their interactions with many aspects of their developmental environment. Prior research has demonstrated that the PNS is highly reactive during young children’s interactions with their caregivers, supporting the characterization of the PNS as a social engagement system. Nevertheless, many key questions remain regarding the role of the PNS during these interactions. One such question is how young children recruit the PNS to support their interactions with caregivers across different roles and settings.

The proposed symposium will present findings from a series of studies that address this question. The first of these examines both individual and dyadic patterns of PNS activity when young children interact with their maternal and paternal caregivers. The second study investigates the effects of an attachment-based intervention on infants’ PNS activity in the presence and absence of their maternal caregivers. The third and final study examines the associations between teacher behavior and preschoolers’ parasympathetic function in the early childhood education classroom.

We anticipate that presenting these studies as part of a single symposium will reveal meaningful points of convergence and divergence in young children’s PNS activity across caregiving contexts. Our discussant, who is a leading researcher on contextual influences on young children’s psychophysiological development, will interpret these nascent points through the lens of polyvagal theory, with an emphasis on their implications for future research and practice.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Steven John Holochwost, City University of New York Lehman College

Discussant

• Daniel Berry, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Individual Presentations

• The Role of RSA in Preschoolers’ Interactions with Mothers versus Fathers: Implications for Socialization and Developmental Psychopathology - Presenting Author: Erika S. Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Effects of Attachment-Based Intervention on Low-Income Latino Infants' RSA Regulation - Presenting Author: Lisa Berlin, Other (University of Maryland, Baltimore); Tiffany L. Martoccio, University of Maryland - College Park; Roderick Rose, University of Maryland

• Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity in the Early Childhood Education Classroom: Associations With Teacher Behavior - Presenting Author: Steven John Holochwost, City University of New York Lehman College; Cathi Propper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nicholas James Wagner, Boston University; Jennifer L Coffman, University of North Carolina at Greensboro