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RSA Synchrony as a Neurobiological Marker of Susceptibility to Parenting Behaviors among Behaviorally Inhibited Preschoolers

Fri, March 24, 12:30 to 1:15pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 2, Meeting Room 250 A

Abstract

Behaviorally inhibited (BI) children are at greater risk for the development of psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders (Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2009). Past research demonstrates a link between intrusive parenting and risk for BI (Rubin et al., 2009), as well as internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in preschool children (Kimonis et al., 2006). Substantial evidence, however, suggests that the impact of parenting may vary depending on the child’s physiological functioning (Ellis et al., 2011). Drawing on the Biological Sensitivity to Context (BSC) theory (Boyce & Ellis, 2005), we investigated parent-child physiological coregulation as a potential neurobiological susceptibility factor that may moderate the effects of intrusive parenting on the development of internalizing and externalizing symptoms among BI preschoolers. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) represents the rhythmic fluctuation of the heart rate variability across the respiratory cycle (Porges, 2007) and is considered a reliable periphery measure of emotion regulatory capacity (Beauchaine, 2001). Extant research documents children’s RSA as a biological susceptibility factor that moderates the effects of the rearing environment on their health and developmental outcomes (Wagner et al., 2017). Recent work by Oshri and colleagues (2021) indicated that parent-child dyadic RSA synchrony may also contribute to individual variability in the effects of parenting behaviors on youth adjustment. In a sample of BI children (Mage = 52.9 months), and their primary parents (n = 151 dyads) who were enrolled in an intervention study, we applied a multilevel modeling approach to a) model patterns of RSA synchrony between parent-child dyads across a series of social stressor tasks, and b) examine the potential role of parent-child RSA synchrony as a biological sensitivity to context factor that moderates the effects of intrusive parenting (parent-report) on BI children’s psychopathology. The laboratory stressors comprised three “Calm-video” conditions interspersed with socially challenging tasks: A “Clown” condition, designed to mimic a social challenge of speaking with an unfamiliar adult; a “Kids” condition, designed to mimic the common experience of learning about an unfamiliar group of peers, and an “Introduction” condition, designed to mimic aspects of the Trier Social Stress Test (Kirschbaum et al., 1993). First, higher intrusive parenting behaviors were associated with more child externalizing (but not internalizing) problem behaviors (b = 0.13, p = 0.01) after controlling for the effects of child age and sex. No statistically significant main effects were found between parent-child RSA synchrony and child internalizing and externalizing problems. Consistent with the BSC theory and past research (e.g., Oshri et al., 2021), parent-child dyadic RSA synchrony moderated the effects of intrusive parenting on child externalizing problems (b = -0.17, p = .045). Simple slope analyses further revealed that higher levels of parenting behaviors predicted more externalizing problems only among BI children who demonstrated negative RSA synchrony (-1SD) or a lower level of concordance of dynamic parent-child RSA. High positive synchrony (+1SD) or a physiologically concordant dyad, on the other hand, served as a protective factor against intrusive parenting. This study provides evidence for parent-child dyadic RSA synchrony as a biomarker of sensitivity to parenting effects in BI children.

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