Abstract
Atypical respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a biomarker of emotion dysregulation, is associated with both externalizing and internalizing behaviors. In addition, social adversity and gender may moderate this association. In this study, we investigated if RSA (both resting RSA and RSA reactivity in an emotion regulation task) predicts externalizing and/or internalizing behaviors and the extent to which social adversity moderates this relationship. Two hundred and fifty-three children (at Time 1, mean age = 9.05, SD = 0.60, 48% boys) and their caregivers from the community participated in this study. Resting RSA and RSA reactivity were assessed, and caregivers reported children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors at both Time 1 and Time 2 (1 year later). We found that lower resting RSA (but not RSA reactivity) at Time 1 was associated with increased externalizing and internalizing behaviors at Time 2 in boys, even after controlling for the effects of Time 1 behavioral problems and Time 2 age. Moreover, there was a significant interaction effect between Time 1 resting RSA and social adversity such that lower resting RSA predicted higher externalizing and internalizing behaviors in boys only under conditions of high social adversity. Follow-up analyses revealed that these predictive effects were stronger for externalizing behavior than for internalizing behavior. No significant effects were found for girls. Our findings provide further evidence that low resting RSA may be a transdiagnostic biomarker of emotion dysregulation and a predisposing risk factor for both types of behavior problems, in particular for boys who grow up in adverse environments. We conclude that biosocial interaction effects and gender differences should be considered when examining the etiological mechanisms of child psychopathology.
Highlights
Externalizing and internalizing behaviors in children are significant risk factors for later mental health problems
Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) externalizing and internalizing behaviors were inter-correlated in both boys (r ranged from 0.26 to 0.67, ps < 0.01) and girls (r ranged from 0.52 to 0.73, ps < 0.01)
T1 resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was negatively correlated with T1 RSA reactivity, and positively correlated with social adversity and T2 resting RSA
Summary
Externalizing and internalizing behaviors in children are significant risk factors for later mental health problems. Researchers are examining the contribution of both biological and psychosocial variables to better characterize the development of these externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Emotion regulation commonly operates in a series of steps: monitor and attend to a specific situation, evaluate or reappraise mentally, and update or modify a response in order to accomplish a specific goal (Gross, 2015) According to this model, emotion dysregulation is “a pattern of emotional experience and/or expression that interferes with appropriate goal directed behavior” (Beauchaine, 2012) by disrupting any one of the above steps. Emotion dysregulation is “a pattern of emotional experience and/or expression that interferes with appropriate goal directed behavior” (Beauchaine, 2012) by disrupting any one of the above steps In this sense, some individuals with poor emotion regulation have difficulties in controlling emotional responses or inhibiting their behaviors, resulting in externalizing outbursts (Eisenberg et al, 2001). In the context of internalizing behaviors, emotion dysregulation occurs at the level of attention and mental reappraisal, with these individuals unable to inhibit negative thoughts resulting in excessive rumination and sadness (Eisenberg et al, 2001)
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