Infant cardiac activity: Developmental changes and relations with attachment.

Abstract

In this study the stability over the first 13 months of life of measures of infant cardiac activity (heart period and heart-period variability), their relations with each other, and their relations with a continuous-variable index of infant-mother attachment were investigated. The indexes of cardiac activity changed in an orderly way with development (increasing heart-rate variability, decreasing heart rate). There were moderate to high intercorrelations among the cardiac measures, particularly those indexing heart-rate variability (i.e., vagal tone, heart-period variance, and heart-period range). Regression analyses showed that the measures of heart-rate variability at 3,6, and 9 months were significant predictors of the continuous-variable index of security. The higher the infants' heart-rate variability, the higher were their attachment insecurity scores. Analyses of whether the conventional secure/insecure classification was related to the early infant cardiac measures indicated that measures of heart-rate variability were significantly higher in the insecure children.Recently, researchers have investigated the relation between attachment classification and measures of temperament (Belsky & Rovine, 1987; Bretherton, CConnell, &Tracey, 1980;Miyake, Chen, & Campos, 1985). This research has demonstrated a relation between concurrent measures of temperament and attachment and suggests that temperament, assessed during early infancy, may be a reliable predictor of attachment classification. For example, Miyake et al. (1985) reported that infant irritability measured at 3 months of age was predictive of patterns of resistant behavior during reunion in the strange situation at 1 year. These findings suggest that temperament may contribute significantly to the prediction of the quality of attachment.Neurophysiological processes may underlie the construct of temperament and mediate aspects of the relation between temperament and attachment. Contemporary theoretical perspectives have conceptualized temperament as a psychobiological construct (e.g., Goldsmith & Campos, 1982;Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981;Thomas & Chess, 1977). For example, Rothbart and Derryberry defined temperament in terms of constitutional differences in physiological reactivity and self-regulation of reactivity. Thus, children's approach and avoidant behaviors, observed in the strange-situation procedure (Ainsworth, Ble-

Short‐term stability of physiological measures in kindergarten children: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart period, and cortisol

“…Porter, Bryan, and Hsu (1995) reported moderate stability of RSA across the first 6 months of life. Izard, Porges, Simons, Haynes, and Cohen (1991) reported stability from 3 and 4.5 months of age to 6, 9, and 13 months of age. Fracasso, Porges, Lamb, and Rosenberg (1994) also reported stability over the first year of life with correlations between consecutive assessments at 5, 7, 10, and 13 months ranging from r ¼ .50 to r ¼ .55.…”

Stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and young adolescents: A longitudinal examination

“…For example, Bornstein and Suess (2000) found marginal stability (r ¼ .30) between 2 months and 5 years of age, and Fracasso, Porges, Lamb, and Rosenberg (1994) reported stability levels between r ¼ .50 and r ¼ .60 during Months 7, 10, and 13 of the infants' lives (see also Izard et al, 1991). Note that some investigations did not support the stability of baseline RSA in the first year of life (Porter, Bryan, & Hsu, 1995;Stifter, Fox, & Porges, 1989).…”

Self-Esteem and Autonomic Physiology: Parallels Between Self-Esteem and Cardiac Vagal Tone as Buffers of Threat

“…Thus this data may not be appropriate for theorizing about the psychology of vagal tone in adults. Specifically, the vagus nerve controls the heart significantly less in infancy and in children than afterwards (e.g., Porges, Doussard-Roosevelt, Portales, & Suess, 1994;Izard, Porges, Simons, Haynes, & Cohen, 1991). As a consequence, it makes vagal tone in children and adults difficult to compare.…”