Mother–Child Coregulation of Parasympathetic Processes Differs by Child Maltreatment Severity and Subtype

Abstract

Parasympathetic processes appear to underlie maladaptive parent-child interactions in maltreating families, but it is unknown whether parent-child coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) differs by child maltreatment severity and subtype. RSA coregulation in maltreating and nonmaltreating mother-child dyads ( N = 146; age 3-5 years) during two dyadic tasks was analyzed using dynamic time series modeling. Nonmaltreating dyads showed positive RSA concordance but maltreating dyads (when examined as one group) did not. However, when examined separately by subtype, physically abusive dyads showed positive concordance and neglectful dyads no concordance, in dyadic RSA. Patterns were further modified by maltreatment severity, which predicted discordant RSA (one partner's RSA predicting decreases in the other's) in both groups. Specifically, higher physical abuse severity predicted lower resting child RSA, declining mother RSA over time, and mother RSA predicting declines in child RSA over time, suggesting a mother-driven dyadic stress response. Higher neglect severity predicted increasing child RSA over time and child RSA predicting declines in mother RSA over time, suggesting a child-driven maternal stress response. These findings show there are distinct patterns of RSA coregulation in nonmaltreating, physically abusive, and neglectful mother-child dyads, which may inform etiology and intervention with respect to stress regulation in maltreating families.

Parent‐adolescent physiological synchrony: Moderating effects of adolescent emotional insecurity

“…The present study advances the literature in documenting within-person RSA synchrony patterns among fathers, mothers, and adolescents simultaneously during triadic conflict discussion, as well as illuminating the potential for child characteristics to moderate these associations in a sample of adolescents and their parents. Our observed positive minute-to-minute synchrony between mothers and adolescents is consistent with the literature (e.g., Lunkenheimer et al, 2015Lunkenheimer et al, , 2018aLunkenheimer et al, , 2018bWoody et al, 2016). Specifically, when mothers exhibited higher RSA activity at a certain occasion compared to their personal mean, the adolescents also tended to show greater RSA at the same time.…”

“…A second aim of the present article was to illuminate a potential source of variability in physiological synchrony between family members. Previous work within the realm of physiological synchrony has demonstrated the utility of a within-person approach to examine the influence of external adversity on RSA synchrony (e.g., Creaven et al, 2014;Gray, Lipschutz, & Scheeringa, 2018;Lunkenheimer et al, 2018aLunkenheimer et al, , 2018bWoody et al, 2016). However, limited research to date has examined how child characteristics may moderate the levels of the physiological synchrony between parents and children (e.g., see exception for research on the role of child externalizing problems and internalizing problems on parent-child RSA synchrony, Lunkenheimer et al, 2015;2018a).…”

A Social Neuroscience Approach to Interpersonal Interaction in the Context of Disruption and Disorganization of Attachment (NAMDA)

“…We are not aware of any direct evidence for effects of attachment disruption and/or disorganization in second person social neuroscience investigations. However, first indirect evidence on maltreated preschoolers dovetails with our proposal, revealing positive concordance in parasympathetic activity for abusive, but no concordance for neglectful mother-child dyads during puzzle tasks (155). It thus remains to be seen whether the proposed dissociation between a hypo-versus hyper-arousal phenotype also extends to patterns of bio-behavioral synchrony among disorganized dyads and, if yes, what the implication of such dissociation may be.…”

An intervention that increases parental sensitivity in families referred to Child Protective Services also changes toddlers’ parasympathetic regulation

“…For example, it may be that caregivers receiving PFR adjusted their pace of interaction, stimulation, and arousal to better match that of their child, improving moment-to-moment synchrony and thereby supporting their child's developing self-regulatory capacities (Feldman, 2007), including parasympathetic regulation (Giuliano, Skowron, & Berkman, 2015). PFR may also have benefitted the parents' own physiological regulatory capacities, and the parents' ability to maintain a calm state of autonomic arousal while interacting with their child may have established physiological synchrony that supported the child's adaptive parasympathetic responsiveness (Helm, Miller, Kahle, Troxel, & Hastings, 2018;Lunkenheimer, Busuito, Brown, & Skowron, 2018). It is also plausible that PFR improved caregiver reflective capacity (Slade, 2005).…”