Predicting cardiac vagal regulation in early childhood from maternal-child relationship quality during toddlerhood.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of maternal-child relationship quality during toddlerhood on early childhood physiological regulation. A community sample of 447 children (215 males) was recruited at age 2 for participation in the study using the Child Behavior Checklist [Achenbach [1992] Manual for the child behavior checklist/2-3 & 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of VT Department of Psychiatry]. Mothers and children were observed across several interactions in the laboratory at age 2 and mothers completed the Parenting Stress Index [Abidin [1995] Manual for the parenting stress index. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources]. Relationship quality was assessed using laboratory measures of hostility, positive guidance, and stress related to the quality of the relationship as reported by mothers. Cardiac vagal regulation at age 2 was assessed across six challenge tasks, three in which the child and mother worked together and three in which the child worked independently, and was indexed by the magnitude of vagal withdrawal (decrease in respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) to challenge. Results indicated that children displayed greater cardiac vagal regulation and heart rate acceleration during collaborative tasks versus independent tasks. In addition, maternal-child relationship quality predicted the degree of vagal regulation in children at age 5, even after controlling for early and concurrent level of behavior problems as well as 2-year cardiac vagal regulation. Children with poorer quality relationships displayed significantly poorer vagal regulation and lower heart rate acceleration (p < .01). These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of environmental factors for the acquisition of fundamental self-regulatory skills.

[1]  S. Calkins.  The emergence of self-regulation: Biological and behavioral control mechanisms supporting toddler competencies. , 2007 .

[2]  P. Venables,et al.  Relationships between central and autonomic measures of arousal at age 15 years and criminality at age 24 years. , 1990, Archives of general psychiatry.

[3]  S. Porges,et al.  Cardiac vagal tone and sustained attention in school-age children. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[4]  Richard J. Davidson,et al.  Neural bases of emotion regulation in nonhuman primates and humans , 2007 .

[5]  C. Stifter,et al.  Vagal Regulation and Observed Social Behavior in Infancy , 2001 .

[6]  C. Kopp.  Regulation of distress and negative emotions: A developmental view. , 1989 .

[7]  L. Sroufe,et al.  Continuity of Adaptation in the Second Year : The Relationship Between Quality of Attachment and Later Competence , 2005 .

[8]  M. El-Sheikh.  Stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and young adolescents: a longitudinal examination. , 2005, Developmental psychobiology.

[9]  J. Jenkins,et al.  Low and Middle Income Mothers' Regulation of Negative Emotion: Effects of Children's Temperament and Situational Emotional Responses. , 2004 .

[10]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Longitudinal relations between child vagal tone and parenting behavior: 2 to 4 years. , 2004, Developmental psychobiology.

[11]  Bengt Muthén,et al.  Latent Variable Analysis: Growth Mixture Modeling and Related Techniques for Longitudinal Data , 2004 .

[12]  S. Calkins,et al.  Profiles of externalizing behavior problems for boys and girls across preschool: the roles of emotion regulation and inattention. , 2006, Developmental psychology.

[13]  Stephen W. Porges,et al.  Vagal tone: An autonomic mediator of affect , 1991 .

[14]  Benjamin B. Lahey,et al.  Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency , 2003 .

[15]  S. Calkins,et al.  Infants' vagal regulation in the still-face paradigm is related to dyadic coordination of mother-infant interaction. , 2004, Developmental psychology.

[16]  Stephen W Porges,et al.  Short-term stability of physiological measures in kindergarten children: respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart period, and cortisol. , 2003, Developmental psychobiology.

[17]  J. Schafer,et al.  Missing data: our view of the state of the art. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[18]  Todd F. Heatherton,et al.  The cognitive neuroscience of self-regulation. In R.F. Baumeister & K.D. Vohs (Eds.) New York: Guilford Press , 2004 .

[19]  Cathi B. Propper,et al.  The influence of parenting on infant emotionality: A multi-level psychobiological perspective , 2006 .

[20]  S. Calkins,et al.  Regulatory Contributors to Children's Kindergarten Achievement , 2003 .

[21]  D. Rubin,et al.  Testing the number of components in a normal mixture , 2001 .

[22]  S. Porges,et al.  Infant regulation of the vagal "brake" predicts child behavior problems: a psychobiological model of social behavior. , 1996, Developmental psychobiology.

[23]  T. Achenbach.  Manual for ASEBA School-Age Forms & Profiles , 2001 .

[24]  S. Calkins.  Cardiac vagal tone indices of temperamental reactivity and behavioral regulation in young children. , 1997, Developmental psychobiology.

[25]  S. Porges.  The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. , 2001, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[26]  S. Calkins,et al.  Predicting stability and change in toddler behavior problems: contributions of maternal behavior and child gender. , 2004, Developmental psychology.

[27]  D. Shaw,et al.  Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing problems in early childhood , 2004, Development and Psychopathology.

[28]  S. Porges.  The polyvagal perspective , 2007, Biological Psychology.

[29]  John J. B. Allen,et al.  Cardiac vagal control, emotion, psychopathology, and health , 2007, Biological Psychology.

[30]  S. Calkins,et al.  Caregiver Influences on Emerging Emotion Regulation: Biological and Environmental Transactions in Early Development. , 2007 .

[31]  K. Keenan.  Emotion Dysregulation as a Risk Factor for Child Psychopathology , 2006 .

[32]  C. Belzung,et al.  Emotional reactivity in mice may not be inherited but influenced by parents , 2004, Physiology & Behavior.

[33]  T. Achenbach.  Integrative Guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18, Ysr, and Trf Profiles , 1991 .

[34]  Stephen W. Porges,et al.  Physiological regulation in high-risk infants: A model for assessment and potential intervention , 1996, Development and Psychopathology.

[35]  Shakti Sharma,et al.  Maternal care during infancy regulates the development of neural systems mediating the expression of fearfulness in the rat. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[36]  M. El-Sheikh,et al.  Longitudinal relations between marital conflict and child adjustment: vagal regulation as a protective factor. , 2006, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[37]  M. Rothbart,et al.  Self-regulation and emotion in infancy. , 1992, New directions for child development.

[38]  S. Calkins,et al.  Frustration in Infancy: Implications for Emotion Regulation, Physiological Processes, and Temperament. , 2002, Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies.

[39]  T. Beauchaine,et al.  Vagal tone, development, and Gray's motivational theory: Toward an integrated model of autonomic nervous system functioning in psychopathology , 2001, Development and Psychopathology.

[40]  S. Porges,et al.  Infant temperament and cardiac vagal tone: assessments at twelve weeks of age. , 1998, Child development.

[41]  M. Gunnar,et al.  Social regulation of the cortisol levels in early human development , 2002, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[42]  M. Hofer,et al.  Psychobiological origins of infant attachment and separation responses. , 1999 .

[43]  S. Calkins.  Does aversive behavior during toddlerhood matter? The effects of difficult temperament on maternal perceptions and behavior , 2002 .

[44]  Stephen W. Porges,et al.  Research methods for measurement of heart rate and respiration , 1992, Biological Psychology.

[45]  M. Gunnar.  Social Regulation of Stress in Early Child Development. , 2008 .

[46]  S. Calkins.  Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotion regulation. , 1994, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[47]  F. Champagne,et al.  Like mother, like daughter: evidence for non-genomic transmission of parental behavior and stress responsivity. , 2001, Progress in brain research.

[48]  E. Leerkes,et al.  Infant and maternal behavior moderate reactivity to novelty to predict anxious behavior at 2.5 years , 2006, Development and Psychopathology.

[49]  Graham K. Rand,et al.  Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences , 1983 .

[50]  David W. Haley,et al.  Infant stress and parent responsiveness: regulation of physiology and behavior during still-face and reunion. , 2003, Child development.

[51]  Nathan A. Fox,et al.  The Development of Self-Control of Emotion: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Influences , 2003 .

[52]  M. El-Sheikh,et al.  Exposure to interparental conflict and children's adjustment and physical health: the moderating role of vagal tone. , 2001, Child development.

[53]  S. Calkins,et al.  Physiological and Behavioral Regulation in Two-Year-Old Children with Aggressive/Destructive Behavior Problems , 2000, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[54]  S. Calkins,et al.  Cardiac vagal regulation across the preschool period: stability, continuity, and implications for childhood adjustment. , 2004, Developmental psychobiology.

[55]  A. Raine.  Autonomic nervous system activity and violence. , 1996 .

[56]  Martha B. Bronson.  Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: Nature and Nurture , 2000 .

[57]  S. Magura.  16. Wald MS: Family Preservation: Are We Moving Too Fast. We Need More Data on the Impact of Interventions with Children. Public Welfare, 1988. 17. Achenbach TM, Edelbrock C: Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist. Burlington, VT: , 1990 .

[58]  A. B. Hollingshead.  Four Factor Index of Social Status [1975] , 1975 .

[59]  C. Blair,et al.  Physiological and Neurocognitive Correlates of Adaptive Behavior in Preschool Among Children in Head Start , 2003, Developmental neuropsychology.

[60]  M. El-Sheikh,et al.  Vagal regulation and emotional intensity predict children's sleep problems. , 2005, Developmental psychobiology.

[61]  Amanda P. Williford,et al.  Predicting Change in Parenting Stress Across Early Childhood: Child and Maternal Factors , 2007, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[62]  N. Fox,et al.  Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: A multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression , 2002, Development and Psychopathology.

[63]  C. Blair.  Behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in young children: relations with self-regulation and adaptation to preschool in children attending Head Start. , 2003, Developmental psychobiology.

[64]  J. Cassidy.  Emotion regulation: influences of attachment relationships. , 1994, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[65]  A. McCutcheon,et al.  Latent Class Analysis , 2021, Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

[66]  S. Calkins,et al.  Cardiac vagal regulation differentiates among children at risk for behavior problems , 2007, Biological Psychology.

[67]  A. B. Hollingshead,et al.  Four factor index of social status , 1975 .

[68]  B. Everitt,et al.  Finite Mixture Distributions , 1981 .

[69]  L. Frank.  The Society for Research in Child Development , 1935 .

[70]  Georgia A. DeGangi,et al.  Psychophysiological Characteristics of the Regulatory Disordered Infant , 1993 .

[71]  E. Leerkes,et al.  Infant and maternal behaviors regulate infant reactivity to novelty at 6 months. , 2004, Developmental psychology.

[72]  S. Calkins,et al.  Maternal interactive style across contexts: Relations to emotional, behavioral and physiological regulation during toddlerhood. , 2001 .

[73]  N. Fox,et al.  Dynamic cerebral processes underlying emotion regulation. , 1994, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[74]  M. Sullivan,et al.  Proximal and Distal Correlates of Maternal Control Style , 1999, Western journal of nursing research.

[75]  Michael I. Posner,et al.  Temperament and Emotion Regulation. , 2007 .

[76]  Christin L Porter.  Coregulation in Mother-Infant Dyads: Links to Infants' Cardiac Vagal Tone , 2003, Psychological reports.

[77]  S. Porges.  The Polyvagal Theory: phylogenetic contributions to social behavior , 2003, Physiology & Behavior.

[78]  K. Vohs,et al.  Handbook of self-regulation : research, theory, and applications , 2004 .

[79]  B. Lahey,et al.  Neurophysiological Correlate of Conduct Disorder: A Rationale and a Review of Research , 1993 .

[80]  T. Achenbach.  Manual for the child behavior checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile , 1991 .

[81]  G. Duncan,et al.  Does neighborhood and family poverty affect mothers' parenting, mental health, and social support? , 1994 .

[82]  Frederick J. Morrison,et al.  A mediational model of the association between socioeconomic status and three-year-old language abilities: The role of parenting factors , 2004 .

[83]  K. Keenan,et al.  Antecedents of preschool children's internalizing problems: a longitudinal study of low-income families. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[84]  R. Feldman.  From biological rhythms to social rhythms: Physiological precursors of mother-infant synchrony. , 2006, Developmental psychology.

[85]  Marc D. Lewis.  Self-organizing individual differences in brain development , 2005 .

[86]  Daniel J Bauer,et al.  Local solutions in the estimation of growth mixture models. , 2006, Psychological methods.

[87]  Nancy Eisenberg,et al.  Effortful control: Relations with emotion regulation, adjustment, and socialization in childhood. , 2004 .

[88]  C. Kopp.  Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. , 1982 .

[89]  L. Sroufe,et al.  Early relationships and the development of children , 2000 .

[90]  Nathan A. Fox,et al.  Infant Reactivity: Physiological Correlates of Newborn and 5-Month Temperament. , 1990 .

[91]  F. Champagne,et al.  The role of corticotropin-releasing factor–norepinephrine systems in mediating the effects of early experience on the development of behavioral and endocrine responses to stress , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[92]  G Kochanska,et al.  Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: from toddler to early school age. , 1997, Child development.

[93]  E. Tabor.  Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications , 2006 .

[94]  S. Calkins.  Biopsychosocial Regulatory Processes in the Development of Childhood Behavioral Problems: Regulatory Competence and Early Disruptive Behavior Problems: The Role of Physiological Regulation , 2009 .