Impact of stress and parenting on respiratory sinus arrythmia trajectories in early adolescence.

Abstract

The effects of stress and parenting on 1-year trajectories of physiological emotion regulation capacity among adolescents were examined. Consistent with the vulnerability-stress and allostatic load models, stress (chronic family and marital) was hypothesized to be associated with less favorable trajectories of basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) over 1 year. This relationship was further hypothesized to be moderated by parenting practices (warmth, neglect, and rejection) and adolescent sex. Participants included 150 adolescents (51.3% female), 11-15 years of age (M=13.04, SD=0.89). Basal RSA and stress were assessed four times across 1 year. Results indicated a significant decrease in RSA over the course of 1 year (β=-0.15, p=.010). Warm parenting style was associated with lower RSA in environments of low marital stress and was also related with higher RSA in environments of high marital stress (β=0.86, p=.021). Rejecting parenting styles were associated with higher RSA in environments of low family stress and lower RSA in environments of high family stress (β=-0.60, p=.014). These findings may be explained by the Yerkes-Dodson law of optimal stress, suggesting that sufficient environmental challenge is needed to catalyze regulatory development.