Adversity is Linked with Decreased Parent-Child Behavioral and Neural Synchrony

Abstract

Parent-child synchrony—parent-child interaction patterns characterized by contingent social responding, mutual responsivity, and co-regulation—has been robustly associated with adaptive child outcomes. Synchrony has been investigated in both behavioral and biological frameworks. While it has been demonstrated that adversity can influence behavioral parent-child synchrony, the neural mechanisms by which this disruption occurs are understudied. The current study examined the association between adversity, parent-child behavioral synchrony, and parent-child neural synchrony across lateral prefrontal cortical regions using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning during a parent-child interaction task that included a mild stress induction followed by a recovery period. Participants included 115 children (ages 4-5) and their primary caregivers. Parent-child behavioral synchrony was quantified as the amount time the dyad was synchronous (e.g., reciprocal communication, coordinated behaviors) during the interaction task. Parent-child neural synchrony was examined as the hemodynamic concordance between parent and child lateral PFC activation. Adversity was examined across two, empirically-derived domains: sociodemographic risk (e.g., family income) and familial risk (e.g., household chaos). Adversity, across domains, was associated with decreased parent-child behavioral synchrony across task conditions. Sociodemographic risk was associated with decreased parent-child neural synchrony in the context of experimentally-induced stress. These findings link adversity to decreased parent-child behavioral and neural synchrony.

DEEP: A dual EEG pipeline for developmental hyperscanning studies

“…As the building blocks of social cognition emerge early on in human development, hyperscanning has gained momentum among developmental researchers in recent years. Hyperscanning studies involving developmental populations have addressed a variety of social exchanges including interactions between infants and adults using EEG ( Leong et al, 2017 , Leong et al, 2019 , Perone et al, 2020 , Santamaria et al, 2020 , Wass et al, 2018 ) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS; Nguyen et al, 2020 , Nguyen et al, 2021 ; Piazza et al, 2020 ); interactions between children and adults using EEG ( Bevilacqua et al, 2019 ), magnetoencephalography (MEG; Hasegawa et al, 2016 ; Hirata et al, 2014 ) and fNIRS ( Azhari et al, 2019 , Hoyniak et al, 2021 , Kruppa et al, 2021 , Miller et al, 2019 , Quiñones‐Camacho et al, 2020 , Reindl et al, 2018 , Reindl et al, 2021 ); and interactions between child and adolescent peers using EEG ( Dikker et al, 2017 , Dikker et al, 2021 ) and fNIRS ( Piazza et al, 2021 ).…”

Atypical Child-Parent Neural Synchrony Links to Children’s Psychopathological Symptoms

“…As such, negative family environment increases the risk of endangering psychological wellbeing by derailing reciprocal interactions and dyadic concordance. Indeed, many studies have demonstrated that negative family environments compromise the effectiveness of reciprocal interactions in child-parent dyads and discourage supportive care and parent warmth (Hoyniak et al, 2021; Tarullo et al, 2017). Children who experienced maladaptive family interaction with parents are prone to develop poor mental health later in life (Feldman, 2007; Quinones-Camacho et al, 2019).…”

“…Indeed, many studies have demonstrated that negative family environments compromise the effectiveness of reciprocal interactions in child-parent dyads and discourage supportive parenting (Hoyniak et al, 2021;Tarullo et al, 2017). Children who experienced maladaptive family interaction with parents are prone to develop psychopathological symptoms later in life Quinones-Camacho et al, 2019).…”

“…This is considered a neurocognitve model of solidifying socioemotional knowledge and skills to cope with ever-changing environmental demands. Family risk factors including parenting stress (Azhari et al, 2019), anxious attachment (Azhari et al, 2020), and sociodemographic risks (Hoyniak et al, 2021) could alter child-parent shared neural response in the PFC.…”

“…This is considered a neurocognitve model of solidifying socioemotional knowledge and skills to cope with ever-changing environmental demands. Family risk factors including parenting stress (Azhari et al, 2019), anxious attachment (Azhari et al, 2020), and sociodemographic risks (Hoyniak et al, 2021) could alter child-parent shared neural response in the PFC. These findings provide initial evidence to suggest that family risk factors can may impede the children’s formation of socioemotional capability of coping with various stressful situations through altered prefrontal functional networks.…”