A meta‐analysis of mother–child synchrony in respiratory sinus arrhythmia and contextual risk

Abstract

Biobehavioral frameworks of attachment posit that mother-child dyads engage in physiological synchrony that is uniquely formative for children's neurobiological, social, and emotional development. Much of the work on mother-child physiological synchrony has focused on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, the strength of the existing evidence for mother-child RSA synchrony during interaction is unclear.Using meta-analysis, we summarized results from 12 eligible studies comprising 14 samples and 1201 children ranging from infancy to adolescence (M age = 5.68 years, SD = 4.13, range = 0.4-17 years) and their mothers. We found that there was a statistically significant, albeit modest, positive within-dyad association between mother and child fluctuations in RSA. There also was evidence for significant heterogeneity across studies. Less mother-child RSA synchrony was observed in high-risk samples characterized by clinical difficulties, history of maltreatment, or socioeconomic disadvantage. We did not find that mother-child RSA synchrony significantly differed by task context, mean child age, or by epoch length for computing RSA. Collectively, these findings suggest that mother-child dyads show correspondence in their fluctuations in RSA, and that RSA synchrony is disrupted in high-risk contexts. Future directions and implications for the study of parent-child physiological synchrony are discussed.

Integrating Biobehavioral and Environmental Components of Developmental Psychopathology via Interpersonal Dynamics: An RDoC-Advancing Model

“…Table 1 highlights the domains (superordinate constructs) for which there is empirical evidence of caregiver-child dynamics among typical developmental, at-risk, and clinical populations, organized by the units of analysis in the RDoC matrix and key paradigms. Caregiver-child dynamics have been reliably established using multiple assessment paradigms, including unstructured play tasks and standardized stress and stress and recovery tasks (Atkinson et al, 2016 ; Golds et al, 2022 ; Leclère et al, 2014 ; Miller et al, 2023 ; Provenzi et al, 2018 ). Notably, units of analysis and assessment paradigms are orthogonal to the domains, such that each construct in the matrix can be assessed in various measurement classes and assessment paradigms (Cuthbert, 2014 ).…”

“… All citations refer to reviews that offer a synthesis of evidence of interpersonal caregiver-child dynamics for a given construct, except Henry et al ( 2022 ) who offer preliminary evidence of subjective parent–child dynamics from a single study ANS Autonomic nervous system, EEG Electroencephalogram, HPA Hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal, HR Heart rate, HRV HR Variability, IBI Interbeat interval, PEP Preejection period, PNS Parasympathetic nervous system, a Bell ( 2020 ) b DePasquale ( 2020 ) c Ratliff et al ( 2022 ) d Birk et al ( 2022 ) e Davis et al ( 2018 ) f Miller et al ( 2023 ) g Atkinson et al ( 2016 ) h DiLorenzo et al ( 2022 ) i Leclère et al ( 2014 ) j Harrist and Waugh ( 2002 ) k Provenzi et al ( 2018 ) l Patterson ( 1982 ) m Patterson et al ( 1992 ) n Davis et al ( 2017 ) o Feldman et al ( 2007 ) p Henry et al ( 2022 ) q Turk et al ( 2022 ) r Golds et al ( 2022 ) s Grumi et al ( 2022 ) …”

“…Interpersonal dynamics have also been reliably established in nonspecific autonomic measures, including heart rate and interbeat intervals (IBI) and thermal facial imprints (Davis et al, 2018 ; DePasquale, 2020 ), as well as within both the sympathetic (e.g., electrodermal activity/skin conductance, salivary alpha amylase, cardiac PEP) and parasympathetic branches (e.g., vagal withdrawal indexed by decreased respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] or heart rate variability in the high frequency domain [HF-HRV]) of the autonomic nervous system (Atkinson et al, 2016 ; Birk et al, 2022 ; Davis et al, 2018 ; DePasquale, 2020 ). Recent meta-analytic work suggests that, on average, for mother–child dyads from infancy to adolescence, there generally is concurrent positive RSA synchrony (Miller et al, 2023 ).…”

Parent–child coregulation as a dynamic system: a commentary on Wass et al. (2024)

“…The authors address relations between coregulation and different types of developmental psychopathology. This is a challenging endeavor because parent-child coregulation varies by risk type and level (Miller, Armstrong-Carter, Balter, & Lorah, 2023), suggesting more research is needed to understand integrative, underlying mechanisms of maladaptive coregulation. It will be important in future work to continue to consider both individual forms of developmental psychopathology and how they influence parent-child coregulation (e.g., child ADHD) as well as dyadic forms of developmental psychopathology that may be especially pertinent to coregulatory dysfunction.…”

“…The authors place the central nervous system (CNS) at the center of the definition of critical states, i.e., maintaining optimal levels between over‐ and under‐excitation in biological arousal, which is fitting given the concept of allostasis is originally rooted in biological systems. Although not addressed in the review, there is now ample research on parent–child coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; an index of CNS‐mediated heart rate variability; see Miller et al., 2023 for a meta‐analysis), which is a highly relevant biomarker for coregulation research given that it is a sensitive, cost‐effective, easy to administer measure of stress physiology that shows effects on short time scales (e.g., 1 s, 15 s, 30 s) in response to dyadic laboratory stressors, and theoretically underpins emotional and behavioral regulation in interpersonal contexts. RSA coregulation processes are allostatic and oscillatory in nature, though relatively few studies on this and other biological systems have explicitly modeled oscillatory parameters in analyses.…”