Associations between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms are emotion specific

Emotional Reactivity, Behavior Problems, and Social Adjustment at School Entry in a High-risk Sample

Prior research suggests that heightened emotional reactivity to emotionally distressing stimuli may be associated with elevated internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and contribute to impaired social functioning. These links were explored in a sample of 169 economically-disadvantaged kindergarteners (66 % male; 68 % African American, 22 % Hispanic, 10 % Caucasian) oversampled for elevated aggression. Physiological measures of emotional reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], heart rate [HR], and cardiac pre-ejection period [PEP]) were collected, and teachers and peers provided ratings of externalizing and internalizing behavior, prosocial competence, and peer rejection. RSA withdrawal, HR reactivity, and PEP shortening (indicating increased arousal) were correlated with reduced prosocial competence, and RSA withdrawal and HR reactivity were correlated with elevated internalizing problems. HR reactivity was also correlated with elevated externalizing problems and peer rejection. Linear regressions controlling for age, sex, race, verbal proficiency, and resting physiology showed that HR reactivity explained unique variance in both teacher-rated prosocial competence and peer rejection, and contributed indirectly to these outcomes through pathways mediated by internalizing and externalizing problems. A trend also emerged for the unique contribution of PEP reactivity to peer-rated prosocial competence. These findings support the contribution of emotional reactivity to behavior problems and social adjustment among children living in disadvantaged urban contexts, and further suggest that elevated reactivity may confer risk for social difficulties in ways that overlap only partially with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems.

Attenuated neural reactivity to happy faces is associated with rule breaking and social problems in anxious youth

Pediatric anxiety is associated with comorbid externalizing behaviors and social problems, and these associations may be related to altered emotion processing. The late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential component, is a neural marker of emotion processing, and there is evidence that anxious youth exhibits enhanced LPPs to threatening signals. It is unknown, however, if differences in the LPP are related to externalizing behaviors and social problems co-occurring with anxiety and if these associations are driven by altered processing of threatening (angry or fearful faces) or rewarding (happy faces) socio-emotional signals. Thus, in the present study, we examined, in a sample of 39 anxious youth, the association between LPPs, following socio-emotional signals and externalizing behaviors and social problems. Results indicated an association between attenuated LPPs in response to happy faces and greater rule-breaking and social problems. These findings suggest that differences in positive socio-emotional signal processing are related to heterogeneity in pediatric anxiety and that LPPs are a sensitive index of such heterogeneity.

Suicide ideation among high-risk adolescent females: Examining the interplay between parasympathetic regulation and friendship support

Poor physiological self-regulation has been proposed as a potential biological vulnerability for adolescent suicidality. This study tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of parasympathetic stress responses on future suicide ideation. In addition, drawing from multilevel developmental psychopathology theories, the interplay between parasympathetic regulation and friendship support, conceptualized as an external source of regulation, was examined. At baseline, 132 adolescent females (M age = 14.59, SD = 1.39) with a history of mental health concerns participated in an in vivo interpersonal stressor (a laboratory speech task) and completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms and perceived support within a close same-age female friendship. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured before and during the speech task. Suicide ideation was assessed at baseline and at 3, 6, and 9 months follow-up. The results revealed that females with greater relative RSA decreases to the laboratory stressor were at higher risk for reporting suicide ideation over the subsequent 9 months. Moreover, parasympathetic responses moderated the effect of friendship support on suicide ideation; among females with mild changes or higher relative increases in RSA, but not more pronounced RSA decreases, friendship support reduced risk for future suicide ideation. Findings highlight the crucial role of physiological and external regulation sources as protective factors for youth suicidality.

Nonrandom Acts of Kindness: Parasympathetic and Subjective Empathic Responses to Sadness Predict Children's Prosociality

How does empathic physiology unfold as a dynamic process, and which aspect of empathy predicts children's kindness? In response to empathy induction videos, 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 180) showed an average pattern of dynamic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) change characterized by early RSA suppression, followed by RSA recovery, and modest subsequent suppression during positive resolution of the empathic event. Children's capacity for this pattern of flexible RSA change was associated with their subjective empathic feelings, which were concurrently associated with more sympathetic and prosocial responses to others. Conversely, only children's dynamic RSA change longitudinally predicted prosocial behavior 2 years later. These findings have implications for understanding the dynamic and multifaceted nature of empathy, and its relation with prosocial development.

Sleep duration and RSA suppression as predictors of internalizing and externalizing behaviors

Although the conceptual interplay among the biological and clinical features of sleep, arousal, and emotion regulation has been noted, little is understood about how indices of sleep duration and parasympathetic reactivity operate jointly to predict adjustment in early childhood. Using a sample of 123 toddlers, the present study examined sleep duration and RSA reactivity as predictors of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Parents reported on children's sleep duration and adjustment. RSA reactivity was assessed via children's responses to fear-eliciting stimuli and an inhibitory control challenge. Findings demonstrated that greater RSA suppression to both types of tasks in combination with longer sleep duration was concurrently associated with less internalizing. In contrast, greater RSA augmentation to an inhibitory control task in the context of shorter sleep duration predicted more externalizing 1 year later. The significance of duration of toddlers' sleep as well as the context in which physiological regulatory difficulties occurs is discussed.

The effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia on anger reactivity and persistence in major depression

The experience of anger during a depressive episode has recently been identified as a poor prognostic indicator of illness course. Given the clinical implications of anger in major depressive disorder (MDD), understanding the mechanisms involved in anger reactivity and persistence is critical for improved intervention. Biological processes involved in emotion regulation during stress, such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), may play a role in maintaining negative moods. Clinically depressed (MDD; n = 49) and nondepressed (non-MDD; n = 50) individuals were challenged with a stressful computer task shown to increase anger, while RSA (high frequency range 0.15-0.4 Hz) was collected. RSA predicted future anger, but was unrelated to current anger. That is, across participants, low baseline RSA predicted anger reactivity during the task, and in depressed individuals, those with low RSA during the task had a greater likelihood of anger persistence during a recovery period. These results suggest that low RSA may be a psychophysiological process involved in anger regulation in depression. Low RSA may contribute to sustained illness course by diminishing the repair of angry moods.

Changes in life satisfaction when losing one's spouse: individual differences in anticipation, reaction, adaptation and longevity in the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP)

Losing a spouse is among the most devastating events that may occur in people's lives. We use longitudinal data from 1,224 participants in the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine (a) how life satisfaction changes with the experience of spousal loss; (b) whether socio-demographic factors and social and health resources moderate spousal loss-related changes in life satisfaction; and (c) whether extent of anticipation, reaction and adaptation to spousal loss are associated with mortality. Results reveal that life satisfaction shows anticipatory declines about two and a half years prior to (anticipation), steep declines in the months surrounding (reaction) and lower levels after spousal loss (adaptation). Older age was associated with steeper anticipatory declines, but less steep reactive declines. Additionally, younger age, better health, social participation and poorer partner health were associated with better adaptation. Higher pre-loss life satisfaction, less steep reactive declines and better adaptation were associated with longevity. The discussion focuses on the utility of examining the interrelatedness among anticipation, reaction and adaptation to further our understanding of change in life satisfaction in the context of major life events.

Preschoolers' psychophysiological responses to mood induction tasks moderate the intergenerational transmission of internalizing problems

To identify factors that can both exacerbate risk for, and protect against, internalizing problems during early childhood, the present study examined whether children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression in response to emotionally-laden film clips would moderate the association between maternal and child anxious/depressive symptoms in a cross-sectional sample of 108 mothers (M age=30.68years, SD=6.06) and their preschool-age children (M age=3.50years, SD=0.52, 61.30% male). Results indicated that RSA suppression in response to the fear clip moderated the positive association between maternal and child anxious/depressive symptoms, such that higher suppression served a protective-stabilizing function while lower suppression exacerbated children's risk for internalizing symptoms in the context of higher maternal symptoms. Moderation findings involving RSA suppression in response to a happiness-inducing clip were consistent with biological sensitivity to context; the association between maternal and child symptoms was strongest for children higher in suppression.

Emotion regulation and mania risk: Differential responses to implicit and explicit cues to regulate

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

People prone to mania use emotion regulation (ER) strategies well when explicitly coached to do so in laboratory settings, but they find these strategies ineffective in daily life. We hypothesized that, compared with control participants, mania-prone people would show ER deficits when they received implicit, but not explicit, cues to use ER.

METHODS

Undergraduates (N = 66) completed the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) and were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: automatic ER (scrambled sentence primes), deliberate ER (verbal instructions), or control (no priming or instructions to use ER). Then, participants played a videogame designed to evoke anger. Emotion responses were measured with a multi-modal assessment of self-reported affect, psychophysiology, and facial expressions. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was used to index ER.

RESULTS

The videogame effectively elicited subjective anger, angry facial expressions, and heart rate increases when keys malfunctioned. As hypothesized, persons who were more mania prone showed greater RSA increases in the deliberate ER condition than in the automatic or control conditions.

LIMITATIONS

One potential limitation is the use of an analog sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that those at risk for mania require more explicit instruction to engage ER effectively.

Early deprivation and autonomic nervous system functioning in post-institutionalized children

The relations between early deprivation and the development of the neuroendocrine and central components of the mammalian stress response have been examined frequently. However, little is known about the impact of early deprivation on the developmental trajectories of autonomic function. Children adopted between 15-36 months from institutional care were examined during their first 16 months post-adoption (N = 60). Comparison groups included same-aged peers reared in their birth families (N = 50) and children adopted internationally from overseas foster care (N = 46). The present study examined trajectories of baseline autonomic nervous system function longitudinally following entry into adopted families. Post-institutionalized children had higher sympathetic tone, measured by pre-ejection period (PEP). Individual differences in PEP soon after adoption served as a mediator between early deprivation and parent-reported behavioral problems 2 years post-adoption. There were no group differences in parasympathetic function, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia. All three groups showed similar trajectories of ANS function across the 16 month period.

Regulating sadness and fear from outside and within: mothers' emotion socialization and adolescents' parasympathetic regulation predict the development of internalizing difficulties

Multilevel models of developmental psychopathology implicate both characteristics of the individual and their rearing environment in the etiology of internalizing problems and disorders. Maladaptive regulation of fear and sadness, the core of anxiety and depression, arises from the conjoint influences of ineffective parasympathetic regulation of emotion and ineffective emotion socialization experiences. In 171 youths (84 female, M = 13.69 years, SD = 1.84), we measured changes of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in response to sadness- and fear-inducing film clips and maternal supportive and punitive responses to youths' internalizing emotions. Youths and mothers reported on youths' internalizing problems and anxiety and depression symptoms concurrently and 2 years later at Time 2. Maternal supportive emotion socialization predicted fewer, and punitive socialization predicted more, mother-reported internalizing problems at Time 2 only for youths who showed RSA suppression to fear-inducing films. More RSA suppression to sadness-inducing films predicted more youth-reported internalizing problems at Time 2 in girls only. In addition, less supportive emotion socialization predicted more youth-reported depression symptoms at Time 2 only for girls who showed more RSA suppression to sadness. RSA suppression to sadness versus fear might reflect different patterns of atypical parasympathetic regulation of emotional arousal, both of which increase the risk for internalizing difficulties in youths, and especially girls, who lack maternal support for regulating emotions.

Growth models of dyadic synchrony and mother-child vagal tone in the context of parenting at-risk

We used multilevel modeling to examine dynamic changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and observer-coded interactive synchrony for mother-child dyads engaged in a laboratory interaction, to characterize parenting-at-risk. Seventy-nine preschooler-mother dyads including a subset with documented child maltreatment (CM; n=43) were observed completing a joint puzzle task while physiological measures were recorded. Dyads led by CM mothers showed decreases in positive synchrony over time, whereas no variation was observed in non-CM dyads. Growth models of maternal RSA indicated that mothers who maintained high levels of positive interactive synchrony with their child evidenced greater RSA reactivity, characterized by an initial withdrawal followed by augmentation as the task progressed, after accounting for CM group status. These results help to clarify patterns of RSA responding in the context of caregiver-child interactions, and demonstrate the importance of modeling dynamic changes in physiology over time in order to better understanding biological correlates of parenting-at-risk.

Trajectories of internalizing symptoms across childhood: The roles of biological self-regulation and maternal psychopathology

Whether internalizing symptoms increase or remain at similar levels throughout childhood is currently not well understood. Moreover, the association between vagal regulation of cardiac activity and internalizing symptoms across childhood needs to be clarified. We used a multilevel conceptual framework to examine how children's vagal regulation of cardiac activity and mothers' internalizing symptoms were jointly associated with children's developmental trajectories of internalizing symptoms from ages 4 to 10 years old. Data came from 384 children who participated in an ongoing longitudinal study. Children and their mothers came to the research laboratory at ages 4, 5, 7, and 10. Mothers reported their children's and their own internalizing symptoms. Children's vagal regulation of cardiac activity was assessed during quiet baseline tasks and during challenge tasks. Multilevel models revealed that child internalizing symptoms increased from ages 4 to 10 years old, but only in females, and especially between ages 7 and 10. More vagal withdrawal in response to challenge was associated with more internalizing symptoms, particularly with more somatic symptoms. Associations between children's physiological regulation and internalizing symptoms differed by children's age, sex, and presence of maternal internalizing symptoms. Understanding associations between vagal regulation of cardiac activity and internalizing symptoms during childhood calls for fine-grained developmental analyses that take into account the heterogeneity of internalizing symptoms, as well as developmental phase, context, and gender.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia during worry forecasts stress-related increases in psychological distress

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) has been conceptualized as an index of emotion regulation abilities. Although resting RSA has been associated with both concurrent and prospective affective responses to stress, the impact of RSA reactivity on emotional responses to stress is inconsistent across studies. The type of emotional stimuli used to elicit these phasic RSA responses may influence the adaptive value of RSA reactivity. We propose that RSA reactivity to a personally relevant worry-based stressor might forecast future affective responses to stress. To evaluate whether resting RSA and RSA reactivity to worry inductions predict stress-related increases in psychological distress, an academic stress model was used to prospectively examine changes in psychological distress from the well-defined low- and high-stress periods. During the low-stress period, 76 participants completed self-report mood measures and had their RSA assessed during a resting baseline, free worry period and worry catastrophizing interview. Participants completed another mood assessment during the high-stress period. Results indicated that baseline psychological distress predicted larger decreases in RSA during the worry inductions. Lower resting RSA and greater RSA suppression to the worry inductions at baseline prospectively predicted larger increases in psychological distress from the low- to high-stress period, even after accounting for the impact of baseline distress on RSA. These results provide further evidence that RSA may represent a unique index of emotion regulation abilities in times of stress.

Early physiological regulation predicts the trajectory of externalizing behaviors across the preschool period

Early assessments of children's physiological functioning are shown to predict subsequent developmental outcomes. However, individual changes that occur in the development of physiological systems may be associated with the pattern of change in behavior across time. Thus, we examined change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of physiological regulation, as a time-varying predictor in order to assess whether RSA change at ages 3, 4, and 5 uniquely influenced the trajectory of externalizing behaviors from age 3 to 5. Results indicated that only at age 3 was RSA change significantly associated with decreases in externalizing behaviors over time. RSA change scores at ages 4 and 5 were unrelated to trajectories of externalizing behavior, suggesting that the ability to physiologically regulate by age 3 may contribute to the development of skills that facilitate more control over behavior throughout preschool, and therefore may be more strongly associated with the pattern of change in externalizing behaviors than later physiological regulation.

Emotion dysregulation and dyadic conflict in depressed and typical adolescents: evaluating concordance across psychophysiological and observational measures

Many depressed adolescents experience difficulty in regulating their emotions. These emotion regulation difficulties appear to emerge in part from socialization processes within families and then generalize to other contexts. However, emotion dysregulation is typically assessed within the individual, rather than in the social relationships that shape and maintain dysregulation. In this study, we evaluated concordance of physiological and observational measures of emotion dysregulation during interpersonal conflict, using a multilevel actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Participants were 75 mother-daughter dyads, including 50 depressed adolescents with or without a history of self-injury, and 25 typically developing controls. Behavior dysregulation was operationalized as observed aversiveness during a conflict discussion, and physiological dysregulation was indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Results revealed different patterns of concordance for control versus depressed participants. Controls evidenced a concordant partner (between-person) effect, and showed increased physiological regulation during minutes when their partner was more aversive. In contrast, clinical dyad members displayed a concordant actor (within-person) effect, becoming simultaneously physiologically and behaviorally dysregulated. Results inform current understanding of emotion dysregulation across multiple levels of analysis.

Early adversity, RSA, and inhibitory control: evidence of children's neurobiological sensitivity to social context

This study examined parasympathetic physiology as a moderator of the effects of early adversity (i.e., child abuse and neglect) on children's inhibitory control. Children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was assessed during a resting baseline, two joint challenge tasks with mother, and an individual frustration task. RSA assessed during each of the joint parent-child challenge tasks moderated the effects of child maltreatment (CM) status on children's independently-assessed inhibitory control. No moderation effect was found for RSA assessed at baseline or in the child-alone challenge task. Among CM-exposed children, lower RSA levels during the joint task predicted the lowest inhibitory control, whereas higher joint task RSA was linked to higher inhibitory control scores that were indistinguishable from those of non-CM children. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of considering context specificity (i.e., individual and caregiver contexts) in how biomarkers inform our understanding of individual differences in vulnerability among at-risk children.