Affective reactivity, resting heart rate variability, and marital quality: A 10-year longitudinal study of U.S. adults

Are In-the-Moment Resilience Processes Predicted by Questionnaire-Based Measures of Resilience?

Research on resilience is a growing field, and resilience has been conceptualized and operationalized in multiple ways. The aim of this study was to compare the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), a conventional measure of resilience, with within-person process indicators derived from experience sampling method (ESM). A sample of 177 teachers from southern Finland participated in the study, commencing with a startup session followed by an 8-day ESM period. Through twice-daily prompts, participants reported their immediate positive and negative affect as well as recent stressors encountered, such as workload and challenging social interactions. As expected, within-person variation in affect was predicted by stressors. However, contrary to expectations, individual differences in affective reactivity to stressors were not predicted by BRCS (βpositive affect [95% CI] = -.20, [-.51, .11]; βnegative affect = .33, [-.07, .69]). Item response theory analyses of the BRCS revealed problems with precision. The results call into question the validity of measuring resilience using single administrations of retrospective self-report questionnaires such as the BRCS.

Adolescent Emotional Reactivity in Family and School Contexts: Prospective Links to Adolescent Psychopathology

Emotional reactivity has been linked to adolescent psychopathology and mental health problems. However, limited research has investigated the distinct associations between emotional reactivity in multiple interpersonal contexts and the development of adolescent psychopathology. The current study examined emotional reactivity to interparental conflict, parent-adolescent conflict, and school problems as predictors of adolescent internalizing problems, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms six months later. The sample included 139 adolescents (54% girls; Mage = 13.30, SDage = 0.73) and their parents who completed 10-day daily reports and 6-month follow-up assessments in Taiwan. Results showed that negative emotional reactivity to interparental conflict was associated with increased internalizing problems, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, after controlling for emotional reactivity to parent-adolescent conflict and school problems, outcomes at baseline, mean negative emotions, and sex. Furthermore, the associations between both positive and negative emotional reactivity to interparental conflict and adolescent anxiety symptoms was stronger for girls than boys. Findings suggested that heightened emotional reactivity to interparental conflict is a risk factor for predicting adolescent psychopathology, especially for girls' anxiety symptoms. Results highlight the importance of emotional reactivity across multiple interpersonal contexts in adolescence.

The Prospective Association between Emotional Reactivity and Adolescent Suicidal Ideation

Despite the importance of emotions in our daily lives, less is known about the role of emotional reactivity in suicidal risk. This brief study investigated whether emotional reactivity is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation six months later. Participants were 139 adolescents (55% female; Mage = 12.79, SDage = 0.73) who completed baseline assessments, a 10-day daily diary protocol, and six-month follow-up assessments. Results showed that higher emotional reactivity indicated by increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions was associated with a greater risk for suicidal ideation. The findings suggest that adolescents with greater emotional reactivity to daily school problems had elevated risks for suicidal ideation. This study supports the importance of emotional reactivity in daily life for preventing adolescent suicidal ideation.

Long-term stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia among adults with and without a history of depression

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is an index of parasympathetic nervous system activity reflecting respiratory influences on heart rate. This influence is typically measured as high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) or root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) of adjacent inter-beat intervals. Examining the long-term stability of its measurement is important as levels of resting RSA have been conceptualized as a marker of individual differences; in particular, of an individual's autonomic regulation and affect-related processes, including emotion regulation. At present, it is not known if resting RSA levels reflect stable differences over a long-term period (i.e., >1 year). Even less is known about how RSA stability differs as a function of depression history and whether it relates to depression risk trajectories. In the present study, we examined the 1.5-year test-retest reliability of resting RSA using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) in 82 adults: n = 41 with a history of depression (ever-depressed); n = 41 controls with no depression history (never-depressed). HF-HRV was fairly stable in both groups (ever-depressed ICC = 0.55, never-depressed ICC = 0.54). RMSSD was also fairly stable in ever-depressed adults (ICC = 0.57) and never-depressed controls (ICC = 0.40). ICC values for both indices did not differ between groups per overlapping 95% confidence intervals. Therefore, RSA stability as assessed by both frequency (HF-HRV) and time domain (RMSSD) measures was not attenuated by a depression history. Implications and the need for future research are discussed.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia moderates the interpersonal consequences of brooding rumination

Brooding rumination is an intrapersonal emotion regulation strategy associated with negative interpersonal consequences. Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a psychophysiological marker of self-regulatory capacity, may buffer the association between maladaptive emotion regulation and negative interpersonal behaviors. The current work examines the moderating effect of RSA on the association between brooding rumination and different negative interpersonal consequences. Across three convenience samples, individuals with lower RSA showed a stronger association between brooding rumination and more negative interpersonal behaviors as well as less perception of received instrumental social support (Study 1; n = 154), higher levels of interviewer-rated interpersonal stress (Study 2; n = 42) and a stronger indirect association between brooding rumination and depressive symptoms via daily interpersonal stress (Study 3; n = 222). These findings highlight the negative interpersonal consequences of brooding rumination, particularly among individuals with lower RSA.

The Relational Wear and Tear of Everyday Racism Among African American Couples

The wear and tear of adapting to chronic stressors such as racism and discrimination can have detrimental effects on mental and physical health. Here, we investigated the wider implications of everyday racism for relationship quality in an adult sample of 98 heterosexual African American couples. Participants reported on their experiences of racial discrimination and positive and negative affect for 21 consecutive evenings. Using dyadic analyses, we found that independently of age, gender, marital status, income, racial-discrimination frequency, neuroticism, and mean levels of affect, participants' relationship quality was inversely associated with their partner's negative affective reactivity to racial discrimination. Associations did not vary by gender, suggesting that the effects of affective reactivity were similar for men and women. These findings highlight the importance of a dyadic approach and call for further research examining the role of everyday racism as a key source of stress in the lives of African American couples.

Advancing the Study of Resilience to Daily Stressors

Historically, studies of childhood and adult resilience have typically focused on adaptation to chronic life adversities, such as poverty and maltreatment, or isolated and potentially traumatic events, such as bereavement and serious illness. Here, we present a complementary view and suggest that stressors experienced in daily life may also forecast individual health and well-being. We argue that daily process approaches that incorporate intensive sampling of individuals in natural settings can provide powerful insights into unfolding adaptational processes. In making this argument, we review studies that link intraindividual dynamics with diverse health-related phenomena. Findings from this research provide support for a multiple-levels-analysis perspective that embraces greater unity in pivotal resilience constructs invoked across childhood and adult literatures. Drawing on insights and principles derived from life-span theory, we conclude by outlining promising directions for future work and considering their broader implications for the field of resilience.

A Systematic Review of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Romantic Relationships

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of the parasympathetic nervous system, has recently gained attention as a physiological component of regulatory processes, social connectedness, and health. Within the context of romantic relationships, studies have operationalized and conceptualized RSA in disparate ways, obscuring a clear pattern of findings. This systematic review synthesizes the rapidly developing literature and clarifies the role of RSA in romantic relationships. We evaluate support for three conceptual hypotheses: (1) resting baseline RSA is associated with better quality relationships; (2) phasic RSA is reflective of changes in threat and connection during couple interactions; and (3) physiological linkage in RSA between romantic partners relates to positive or negative relationship functioning depending on the nature of the linkage (e.g., in-phase vs. antiphase). We identified 26 empirical studies that tested associations between RSA and an index of romantic relationships (i.e., relationship satisfaction). Our findings show that higher RSA is not uniformly "good" for relationships. Higher resting baseline RSA was contemporaneously associated with better quality relationships, yet higher baseline RSA was also unexpectedly associated with relationship violence. Short-term decreases in RSA were found during relationship conflict, though the opposite-phasic increases in RSA during positive romantic partner interactions-was not found due to mixed empirical support. As expected, evidence for RSA linkage was found, though the connection between linkage and relationship functioning depends on the context in which it was measured. We discuss methodological limitations and directions for future research.

Heart rate variability moderates the between- and within-person associations between daily stress and negative affect

Stress exposure increases risk for depressive symptoms. However, there are substantial individual differences in affective responses to stress. High-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), a marker of vagally-mediated parasympathetic activity, has been conceptualized as a psychophysiological index of emotion regulation that may moderate individuals' responses to stress. Using a daily diary design, we tested whether individual differences in resting HF-HRV moderated the association between daily child-related stress and negative affect among a sample of 84 heterosexual couples with preschool-aged children. After controlling for participants' age, gender, socioeconomic status, employment status, and ethnicity, hierarchical linear modeling revealed that resting HF-HRV moderated both the between-person and within-person associations between self-reported child-related stress and daily negative affect. Between-person analyses indicated that the strength of the positive association between mean daily child stress and negative affect across the daily diary period increased with decreasing resting HF-HRV. Similarly, within-person analyses indicated that on days when participants reported more child-related stress than usual, the magnitude of the increase in negative affect on that day was inversely related to resting HF-HRV. Taken together, these findings suggest that lower resting HF-HRV may index vulnerability to stress-related disturbances in negative affect. This increased negative affective response to daily stress may be one pathway through which individuals with lower resting HF-HRV are at increased risk for depressive symptoms over time.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a dyadic protective factor in the transition to parenthood

Considerable heterogeneity has been observed in couples' adjustment to the transition to parenthood (TTP). One potential yet understudied predictor of emotional adjustment to the TTP is the new parents' capacity for regulation. A widely accepted biological marker of this capacity is respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), which is closely tied to parasympathetic activation. In the present work, we sought to examine the role of tonic RSA and RSA reactivity as possible protective dyadic factors in the TTP. As part of a larger study, we recruited a sample (N = 100) of TTP couples. At 15 weeks postpartum, the couples took part in a lab session during which their RSA was assessed both at rest (tonic RSA) and during four affiliative dyadic interactions (RSA reactivity). Following this session, couples completed daily diaries over a period of 3 weeks, reporting their daily levels of negative affect and stress. A Multivariate Actor Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine the extent to which each partner's RSA predicted their own and their partner's negative affect (NA) level, as well as NA stress-reactivity (i.e., the strength of the within-person stress-affect association). New mothers' tonic RSA predicted their own lower NA level and NA stress-reactivity; both their tonic RSA and RSA reactivity predicted their (male) partners' lower NA level; and finally, new fathers' tonic RSA and RSA reactivity predicted their (female) partners' lower NA stress-reactivity. These results suggest that RSA may serve as a personal and dyadic protective factor.