Emotional Reactivity, Behavior Problems, and Social Adjustment at School Entry in a High-risk Sample

Abstract

Prior research suggests that heightened emotional reactivity to emotionally distressing stimuli may be associated with elevated internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and contribute to impaired social functioning. These links were explored in a sample of 169 economically-disadvantaged kindergarteners (66 % male; 68 % African American, 22 % Hispanic, 10 % Caucasian) oversampled for elevated aggression. Physiological measures of emotional reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], heart rate [HR], and cardiac pre-ejection period [PEP]) were collected, and teachers and peers provided ratings of externalizing and internalizing behavior, prosocial competence, and peer rejection. RSA withdrawal, HR reactivity, and PEP shortening (indicating increased arousal) were correlated with reduced prosocial competence, and RSA withdrawal and HR reactivity were correlated with elevated internalizing problems. HR reactivity was also correlated with elevated externalizing problems and peer rejection. Linear regressions controlling for age, sex, race, verbal proficiency, and resting physiology showed that HR reactivity explained unique variance in both teacher-rated prosocial competence and peer rejection, and contributed indirectly to these outcomes through pathways mediated by internalizing and externalizing problems. A trend also emerged for the unique contribution of PEP reactivity to peer-rated prosocial competence. These findings support the contribution of emotional reactivity to behavior problems and social adjustment among children living in disadvantaged urban contexts, and further suggest that elevated reactivity may confer risk for social difficulties in ways that overlap only partially with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems.

Use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires to Establish Indicators of Child Development in Public Daycare Centers in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

“…Females tended to have higher scores on all domains of the ASQ:SE. If we assumed that higher scores were associated with lower developmental risk for later social and emotional difficulty, then our findings are consistent with the literature (Blandon et al, 2010;Kalvin et al, 2016).…”

“…Several studies have supported a link between heightened emotionality and both externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (Kalvin et al, 2016).…”

“…The importance of healthy social and emotional development in young children (0-5 years old) is well established in the literature, and these competencies are increasingly recognized as decisive for children's success (Darling-Churchill & Lippman, 2016;Schimmenti & Bifulco, 2015). Several research studies suggest that early emotional and social competencies facilitate children's successful interactions with others and are linked to later academic achievement, better global and mental health, less criminal activity, and less substance use (Halle & Darling-Churchill, 2016;Kalvin, Bierman, & Gatzke-Kopp, 2016). By contrast, inadequate levels of these competencies are recognized as contributing to public health problems, including violence and substance abuse (D. E. Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015).…”

“…Social and emotional domains are important predictors of mental health and the development of cognitive abilities and executive functions, including attention, working memory, and inhibitory control. Research suggests that deficits in emotion regulation and social competence are linked to greater levels of behavioral problems, difficulties with peers, and later psychopathology (Blandon, Calkins, & Keane, 2010;Kalvin et al, 2016). The development of both emotion regulation and social competence are also related to environmental characteristics (Gupta, de Wit, & McKeown, 2007).…”

Recollections of positive early caregiving relate to sympathetic nervous system activation and chronic inflammation in subsequent generations

“…While minor changes in PEP represent healthy responses to meeting basic demands, research has also evidenced alterations in PEP activity in individuals who experienced early life adversity. Further, expected patterns of PEP responding differ in emotion-eliciting and reward-sensitive cognitive tasks (Beauchaine, Gatzke-Kopp, & Mead, 2007;Gatzke-Kopp & Ram, 2018;Kalvin, Bierman, & Gatzke-Kopp, 2016). In the current study, we measured PEP during a social interaction task that required physically close, prosocial engagement with one another.…”