The role of prenatal substance exposure and early adversity on parasympathetic functioning from 3 to 6 years of age

Abstract

We employed latent growth curve analysis to examine trajectories of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) from 3 to 6 years among children with varying levels of prenatal substance exposure and early adversity. Data were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study of prenatal substance exposure that included 1,121 participants. Baseline RSA and RSA reactivity to an attention-demanding task were assessed at 3, 4, 5, and 6 years. Overall, there were significant individual differences in the trajectories of RSA reactivity, but not baseline RSA, across development. Greater levels of prenatal substance exposure, and less exposure to early adversity, were associated with increased RSA reactivity at 3 years, but by 6 years, both were associated with greater RSA reactivity. Prenatal substance exposure had an indirect influence through early adversity on growth in RSA reactivity. Results are in support of and contribute to the framework of allostatic load.

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

“…Thus, as expected, the children of parents who did not receive the intervention showed a pattern of stronger parasympathetic withdrawal in response to the challenge tasks that paralleled what has previously been observed in children and youths who have experienced maltreatment (Conradt et al, 2014;Miskovic et al, 2009;Shenk et al, 2010), and which has been posited to be a biomarker for emotion dysregulation (Beauchaine, 2015). Maltreatment is a broad risk factor for myriad adjustment problems and psychiatric diagnoses (Sousa et al, 2016), many of which have also been linked with strong RSA decreases in response to challenges (Beauchaine & Thayer, 2015).…”

“…In a prospective longitudinal study, Shenk, Noll, Putnam, and Trickett () found that sexual maltreatment identified in late childhood predicted an asymmetrical profile of multisystem reactivity in late adolescence, with stronger parasympathetic withdrawal but weaker adrenocortical reactivity to a cognitive challenge in youths with versus without histories of maltreatment. Conradt and colleagues () found that a cumulative risk index that included maltreatment prior to 3 years predicted incrementally larger RSA decreases to a cognitive challenge across annual assessments from 3 to 6 years. Thus, the profound disruption to the parent–child relationship resulting from childhood maltreatment may predict both lower baseline PNS activity and stronger withdrawal of parasympathetic influence in response to challenges, parallel to the pattern that Beauchaine () contends is typical of individuals with poor emotion regulation and multiple forms of psychopathology.…”

Childhood adversity predicts reduced physiological flexibility during the processing of negative affect among adolescents with major depression histories

“…Specifically, we found that an additive accumulation of adverse negative life events was associated with physiological impairment. While similar associations have been documented when early-life adversities were defined by exposure to a discrete stressor (Field et al, 1995; Pickens and Field, 1995; Porter et al, 2003; Moore, 2010; Oosterman et al, 2010; Rigterink et al, 2010; El-Sheikh and Hinnant, 2011; Conradt et al, 2014; McLaughlin et al, 2015), our findings suggest that such associations are not event specific but represent a generalized pattern. In other words, early adversities appear to contribute to impaired physiological self-regulation in a dose-response fashion.…”

“…Associations between early-life adversity and RSA impairment have been documented despite considerable heterogeneity in the types of early-life adversities examined and in how impaired RSA was defined (for a review, see Propper and Holochwost, 2013). Namely, negative events as diverse as parental depression (Field et al, 1995; Pickens and Field, 1995), domestic violence (Rigterink et al, 2010), marital conflict (Porter et al, 2003; Moore, 2010; El-Sheikh and Hinnant, 2011), neglect and disordered attachment (Oosterman et al, 2010), and institutional care (McLaughlin et al, 2015) have been associated with altered RSA, either in the form of lower baseline RSA (Field et al, 1995; Pickens and Field, 1995; Porter et al, 2003; Moore, 2010; Rigterink et al, 2010; El-Sheikh and Hinnant, 2011), more blunted RSA in response to an experimental stressor (Oosterman et al, 2010; McLaughlin et al, 2015), or both (Conradt et al, 2014; but see Gottman and Katz, 1989; Katz, 2007; Skowron et al, 2014 for contradictory findings).…”

Early caregiving stress exposure moderates the relation between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity at 1 month and biobehavioral outcomes at age 3

“…To date, most researchers, including our own group, have examined how early-life stress affects brain and behavior development using a cumulative-risk approach (Conradt et al, 2014). This strategy derives in part from the observation that although overlapping, risk factors are not entirely redundant (e.g., Conradt, Measelle, & Ablow, 2013; Evans & Kim, 2012).…”