Physiological Reactivity as a Moderator of Longitudinal Relations between Peer Context and Externalizing Behaviors

• In Event: Risk and Protective Factors for Child Externalizing Problems: The Role of Parents, Peers, & Physiology

Abstract

Biological sensitivity to context (BSC; Boyce & Ellis, 2005) theory hypothesizes that physiologically reactive children are more sensitive than their peers to positive and negative environmental factors. Using a BSC framework, we examined longitudinal relations between peer context (i.e., peer rejection or peer acceptance) and externalizing behavior (i.e., hyperactivity-distractibility) and whether these relations were moderated by physiological reactivity to peer stress. We hypothesized that externalizing behavior would be positively associated with peer rejection and negatively associated with peer acceptance, and that these associations would be strongest among children with high physiological reactivity.

Teacher-reported peer rejection and acceptance were collected in the spring (Time 1, T1) and observer-reported aggression and hyperactivity-distractibility were collected at T1 and one year later (Time 2, T2). SCL-R and RSA-R to a peer stressor were collected for participants (N = 91; M age = 45.50 months; SD=3.81 months; 69.6% White, 15.2% Multiracial, 9.8% Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander, 3.3% Black/African American, 1.1% Hispanic/Latino/a/x, 1.1% Missing) in the summer (T1 Summer). Main effect models were tested followed by two-way interactions in regression analyses in Mplus 8.7.

As expected, peer rejection predicted higher levels of hyperactivity-distractibility (β = .26, p = .002) and peer acceptance predicted lower levels of hyperactivity-distractibility (β = -.28, p = .005). An interaction emerged between peer rejection and SCL-R (b = -0.08, SE = .04, p = .03; see Figure 1) and peer acceptance and SCL-R (b = 0.09, SE = .04, p = .02; see Figure 2) in predicting hyperactivity-distractibility. Among children with low SCL-R only, peer rejection was positively associated with (b = 0.21, SE = .07, p = .001) hyperactivity-distractibility, and peer acceptance was negatively associated with (b = -0.22, SE = .06, p < .001) hyperactivity-distractibility. Exploratory analyses indicated that there was a significant three-way interaction between T1 hyperactivity, SCL-R, and peer rejection (b = -0.17, SE = .06, p = .006), such that peer rejection predicted higher levels of hyperactivity-distractibility for children high on initial levels of hyperactivity-distractibility and low on SCL-R (b = 0.51, SE = .13, p < .001) and for children low on initial hyperactivity-distractibility and high on SCL-R (b = 0.18, SE = .09, p = .03).

Overall, findings indicated that peer treatment was associated with heightened hyperactivity-distractibility among children with low SCL-R. Some prior work has found that low SCL-R serves as a biological vulnerability to risky environments (e.g., McQuade & Breaux, 2017). Further, this pattern of effects emerged among children with higher levels of T1 hyperactivity-distractibility. These youth may represent children with biologically-based hyperactivity-distractibility or ADHD symptoms. Children with ADHD have hypo-sensitive autonomic reactivity (Bellato et al., 2020) and make more negative or hostile attributions to ambiguous peer scenarios compared to peers (King et al., 2009), perhaps increasing sensitivity to peer rejection. In contrast, among children low in hyperactivity-distractibility, peer rejection was positively associated with increases in hyperactivity-distractibility at high SCL-R, consistent with a BSC framework. These findings suggest that the processes underlying BSC may differ among children based on initial symptom levels.

Authors

• Lauren M Mutignani, University of Rochester Medical Center
  Presenting Author

• Kristin Perry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Dianna Murray-Close, University of Vermont

• Jamie M. Ostrov, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)