Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity in the Early Childhood Education Classroom: Associations With Teacher Behavior

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

Abstract

Polyvagal theory asserts that supporting social engagement is one of the core functions of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS; Porges, 2007). A large body of research conducted over the past 30 years has revealed robust associations between young children’s parasympathetic activity and their caregivers’ behavior during periods of caregiver-child interaction (Davis et al., 2018). However, to date this research has focused on children’s parasympathetic function during interactions with their parents in the context of the laboratory or children’s homes. No study of which we are aware has examined children’s parasympathetic activity during naturalistic interactions with their non-parental caregivers in the context of the early education classroom. This is a critical gap in our knowledge, given the importance of the early education environment as a context for young children’s development (Silva et al., 2021) and the relevance of parasympathetic function to multiple domains of that development (Wagner et al., 2021).

To address this gap, we collected data from 102 children (53% female, mean age 4.82 years, SD=0.47 years) who were enrolled in one of 12 early education classrooms in the southeastern United States. At the beginning of the preschool day a cardiac monitor was placed on each child and baseline data were collected for 5 minutes while the child participated in a quiet activity. The child then engaged in their school day while the monitor continuously recorded data. During a series of 10-minute sessions over the course of the day and while the child was wearing the monitor, trained researchers observed and noted whether each session was teacher directed and coded patterns of teacher-child interaction using the inCLASS (Downer et al., 2010). Cardiac data for these sessions were extracted, cleaned for artifacts due to motion, and then processed using Porges’ method (1985) to yield a value of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) for each session, which is a reliable index of parasympathetic nervous system activity (Lewis et al., 2012). A change score (dRSA) was calculated for each session by subtracting the mean RSA across the epochs that comprised each session from baseline RSA (Moore & Calkins, 2004).

Our analyses have revealed that children’s mean level of RSA is consistently higher (relative to baseline) during classroom sessions coded as teacher-directed than during sessions coded as not teacher directed (see Figure 1). These analyses have also demonstrated that there is a robust association between more positive teacher-child interactions (per the inCLASS) and higher levels of child RSA relative to baseline (r (71) = .38, p = .004; see Figure 2), These findings will be presented along with the results of analyses in progress to demonstrate the role of the PNS in supporting young children’s engagement with their teachers in the classroom, which is an essential contributor to the benefits that children derive from early education.

Authors

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

• Cathi Propper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Nicholas James Wagner, Boston University

• Jennifer L Coffman, University of North Carolina at Greensboro