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

Abstract

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.

Adolescents’, mothers’, and fathers’ gendered coping strategies during conflict: Youth and parent influences on conflict resolution and psychopathology

“…It is in keeping with more recent conceptualizations and research on family interactions, transactions, and relationships (Kuczynski & Parkin, 2007) to include the important role of offspring influences on others as well as on their own development (Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000; Hastings, Klimes-Dougan, Kendziora, Brand, & Zahn-Waxler, in press; Zahn-Waxler, 2010). Adolescence is a time period when the impact of offspring is increased due in part to expanding self-awareness, search for autonomy, and establishment of personhood.…”

Physiological Response to Social Evaluative Threat in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Similar to the adult literature, studies of children with anxiety disorders have suggested lower PNS functioning at baseline (Dieleman et al 2015). Studies employing emotional regulation or trauma recall tasks in adolescents with anxiety disorders have shown no differences in RSA responsivity (Fisher and Newman 2013; Shenk et al 2014; Kirsch et al 2015) or have found differences in female, but not male adolescents (Hastings et al 2014). To date, there have been no studies employing the TSST in pubertal adolescents with anxiety disorders using RSA as an outcome measure.…”

Brain structural thickness and resting state autonomic function in adolescents with major depression

“…Recently, genetic variants associated with heritable variation in vagal control of autonomic function have been identified (Nolte et al , 2017), and previous studies suggest that, e.g. maternal supportive emotion socialization is linked to vagal activity during active emotion regulation in youth (Hastings et al , 2014). …”