Poster Session 05 Program Schedule
02/15/2024
02:30 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry | Addiction/Dependence | Stress/Coping | Emotional/Social Processes
Final Abstract #10
Psychophysiology and Temperament: Assessing the Role Biological Sex Plays on the Association Between Autonomic Functioning and Emotional Regulation in Early Childhood
Labiba Aziz, CUNY Queen's College, Queens, United States
Yoko Nomura, CUNY Queen's College, Queens, United States
Category: Emotion Regulation
Keyword 1: child development disorders
Objective:
Past research supports respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a cardiac index of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) dysregulation and a specific pattern of heart rate variability (HRV), to impact child temperament. Results associated with RSA have been inconsistent, with some studies reporting benefits of greater RSA suppression whereas others identify risks associated with RSA suppression. Despite these mixed results, whether the association between RSA and child temperament differs by child biological sex remains understudied despite its potential to elucidate sex-specific vulnerabilities to psychological disorders.
Participants and Methods:
A series of linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate group differences in the association between RSA and child temperamental traits, including surgency, effortful control, and negative affectivity, between male and female children at 36 months. 85 mother-child dyads self-reported child temperament via the CBQ (Child Behavior Questionnaire). Child RSA, specifically startle period RSA (s-RSA), was measured in response to a startle paradigm where a calm video was interrupted by six consecutive startle tone bursts at 90dB.
Results:
Results showed that greater s-RSA (more PNS augmentation) was associated with higher effortful control, with no explicit sex differences detected. In contrast, greater s-RSA was linked to lower surgency among boys, but not in girls. While high startle period RSA has been previously linked to a wide range of psychopathological conditions, and thought to reflect a general marker of dysregulated emotion, the results in this study suggest that elevated s-RSA may instead lead to better emotional regulation.
Conclusions:
Children with reduced psychophysiological reactivity during startle experiments (i.e., children with a heightened s-RSA response with a startle) may have better control over their sympathetic nervous system, leading to a greater capacity to adapt to their environment and manage their emotions. Considering boys tend to exhibit higher levels of surgency, which is often described as a precursor to later increased impulsive behaviors and disorders like ADHD, it is possible that a higher s-RSA (i.e., a high parasympathetic innervation) among boys serves as a protective biological mechanism that prevents an exaggerated sympathetic response. This work underlines the importance of simultaneously considering psychophysiology and child sex to predict temperament.
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