Sympathetic recovery from anger is associated with emotion regulation

Abstract

Prior work has focused on how and whether autonomic reactivity in response to emotionally evocative events is associated with better emotion regulation skills in children, but little is known about autonomic recovery processes in children and how they might relate to regulation. In a sample of 67 3.5-year-olds, we examined sympathetic responding during an anger provocation and during a repair period immediately following. Piecewise latent growth curve models were used to estimate changes in pre-ejection period (PEP) that occurred during the provocation period and during the repair period. Mothers reported on global aspects of emotion regulation. On average, children showed a small but significant increase in sympathetic activity (PEP shortening) during the provocation period. Although a significant mean pattern of change was not detected during the repair period, there was significant variability in individual trajectories. These individual differences in physiological change during the repair period were associated with emotion regulation, such that children who were rated as having better emotion regulation showed greater sympathetic recovery (PEP lengthening) during the repair period. This suggests that effectively well-regulated preschoolers are more capable of terminating sympathetic responding after a provocation of anger has ended rather than continuing to be physiologically primed for fight-or-flight responding.