Person‐centered profiles of parasympathetic physiology, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers of young children

Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker of mental health, but RSA‐symptom relations in parents of young children are understudied. We examined how anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, resting RSA, and RSA reactivity during challenging parent–child interactions clustered in a community sample of mothers (N = 126) and fathers (N = 87) of 3‐year‐olds and whether profiles predicted child emotional and behavioral dysregulation at age 4. Mothers fit four profiles (Typical, Mild Risk, Moderate Risk/Withdrawal, and Moderate Risk/Augmentation), suggesting that RSA reactivity was distinct by predominant symptom type at higher levels of risk: specifically, heightened RSA withdrawal was associated with a higher probability of anxiety symptoms and RSA augmentation was associated with a higher probability of depressive symptoms. Fathers fit three profiles (Typical, Mild Risk, and Moderate Risk) where Moderate Risk was characterized by RSA augmentation and a higher probability of both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Mild risk profiles showed heightened resting RSA for mothers and fathers but no differences in RSA reactivity. Both mild and moderate risk profiles predicted higher child dysregulation 1 year later compared to typical profiles. Findings offer preliminary evidence that parasympathetic physiology covaries with symptoms differently for mothers and fathers and that parental profiles of physiology and symptoms inform children's developmental psychopathology.

Differences in mother–child and father–child RSA synchrony: Moderation by child self‐regulation and dyadic affect

“…For example, preschoolers who display RSA augmentation during a challenging task show the highest externalizing problems 2 years later (Kahle et al, 2018). But it should be noted that not all research supports these relations; for example, children's higher resting RSA has been positively related to externalizing problems in middle childhood (Dietrich et al, 2007) and higher parent resting RSA has been shown to predict higher externalizing in preschoolers (Skoranski & Lunkenheimer, 2020). In laboratory studies, higher RSA or RSA augmentation may also represent the absence anywhere from 15% to 23% of anxious youth meet criteria for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Angold, Costello, & Erkanli, 1999;Kendall, Brady, & Verduin, 2001), and about 9% of anxious youth meet criteria for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD;Kendall et al, 2001).…”

“…Other studies show no evidence of father–child RSA synchrony in older children (Li et al., 2020). We might expect RSA synchrony to differ by parent in early childhood given evidence that mothers and fathers show differential RSA reactivity in challenging tasks with preschoolers: specifically, only paternal RSA augmentation, but both maternal RSA augmentation and excessive RSA withdrawal, predict greater child‐externalizing problems over time (Skoranski & Lunkenheimer, 2020). Overall, the dearth of research on father–child RSA synchrony limits our understanding of its role in early child development and more research is warranted (Abraham & Feldman, 2018).…”

Caregiver emotion regulation predicts trajectories of psychopathology during pediatric cancer treatment.

“…In response to mixed findings on RSA and psychological adjustment, some researchers have argued that, because resting RSA confers more flexible emotional responses to the environment, higher RSA may make individuals more open to the negative impact of stressors (Skoranski & Lunkenheimer, 2021). Those with higher RSA may show symptoms of psychopathology in stressful contexts due to greater engagement and awareness of negative emotions (Vasilev et al, 2009).…”

“…Resting RSA was also positively associated with sadness and nonrecovery for individuals with depression (Rottenberg et al, 2002). In community samples, higher resting RSA was associated with the presence of mild depression and anxiety symptoms (Skoranski & Lunkenheimer, 2021), greater state anxiety in a neutral situation (Jönsson, 2007), and more negative affect when discussing a distressing film clip (Butler et al, 2006).…”

Within‐mother variability in vagal functioning and concurrent socioemotional dysregulation

“…In contrast to commonly used static difference scores that capture change in average RSA from a baseline task to a socially meaningful task (Augustine & Leerkes, 2019;Leerkes et al, 2015;Mills-Koonce et al, 2009), researchers have argued for a paradigm shift toward focusing on the dynamic, within-person changes in RSA over the course of an interaction (Giuliano et al, 2015). Studies that employed multilevel models of RSA reactivity have demonstrated meaningful differences between mothers in intra-individual RSA variation during parent-child interactions, which have been linked to maternal mental health and sensitive parenting behavior (Giuliano et al, 2015;Moore et al, 2009;Skoranski & Lunkenheimer, 2020;Skowron et al, 2013). For example, using an intensive repeated measures design to capture changes in physiology and behavior during a joint mother-preschooler challenge task, Skowron et al (2013) demonstrated that decreases in maternal RSA during a 30-s epoch predicted increases in positive parenting during the subsequent 30-s epoch.…”