Maternal harsh parenting and RSA

I’ve written about harsh parenting before, but both studies today relate to respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). RSA is heart rate variability that is in synchrony with respiration. It is state dependent and affected by factors such as breathing pattern, sleep and wakefulness, psychological stress and physical activity (Eckberg, 1983). First, Li, Sturge-Apple & Lunkenheimer (2023) published “Longitudinal Associations between Maternal Harsh Parenting and Child Temperament: The moderating role of children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia” in Journal of Family Psychology.  Here’s the edited abstract:

To better understand biology by environment interactions in early temperament, we examined whether children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; resting RSA and RSA reactivity) operated as a biological marker of differential susceptibility to maternal harsh parenting in predicting children’s temperament. Participants were 133 mother–child dyads (53% male children) from families oversampled for lower income, higher life stress, and child maltreatment risk. Mothers reported harsh parenting at age 3 and children’s temperament, including negative affectivity, effortful control, and surgency, at ages 3 and 4. Resting RSA was measured during a 3-min resting task. RSA reactivity was computed as a difference score between a 4-min toy cleanup task and the resting task. Results showed that the interaction between maternal harsh parenting and children’s resting RSA significantly predicted negative affectivity, after controlling for sex, household income, and age 3 negative affectivity. Specifically, harsh parenting positively predicted negative affectivity among children with higher, but not lower, resting RSA. Similarly, maternal harsh parenting interacted with children’s RSA reactivity to predict negative affectivity after adjusting for controls, such that harsh parenting positively predicted negative affectivity in children with higher, but not lower, RSA reactivity. These findings suggest that higher resting RSA and greater RSA reactivity may operate as markers of increased susceptibility to negative parenting in the development of negative affectivity. 

This is a fairly large sample that is oversampled for circumstances that may elicit harsh parenting and negative affect in children. The findings make sense and may be helpful in differentiating those children more susceptible to harsh parenting. Next, Hong, Bertrand, Deater-Deckard, Smith & Bell (2024) published “The Role of Mother’s and Child’s Self-regulation on Bidirectional Links between Harsh Parenting and Child Externalizing Problems” in Developmental Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

The authors examined task-based (i.e., executive function), surveyed (i.e., effortful control), and physiological (i.e., resting cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) measures of child and maternal regulation as distinct moderators of longitudinal bidirectional links between child externalizing (EXT) behaviors and harsh parenting (HP) from 6 to 9 years. The sample size was 299 (50.9% female; 1% Asian, 4% multiple races; 14% Black; 78% White), and participants were recruited in the United States (a rural college town in Virginia and a midsized city in North Carolina). Higher child EXT at 6 years predicted higher HP at 7–8 years, which predicted higher EXT at 9 years. Also, this path was moderated by 6-year child effortful control, 6-year resting RSA, and 9-year executive function. In contrast, there was no moderating effect of any measure of maternal regulation. Findings suggest it is important to consider child self-regulation when examining bidirectionality in parent and child effects for HP and child EXT. 

The present study adds impetus for utilizing a variety of measures and indicators of children’s and their parents’ regulation capacities when addressing child risk for behavioral problems. Distinct effects are found depending on the indicator of regulation. This has implications for prevention and intervention efforts in the family setting, to improve child regulation skills and reduce behavioral problems. 

Here we have a larger sample and older children. The moderating effects make sense with RSA again moderating relationship the path that predicts sustained externalizing. I especially like the argument for multiple measures of child self-regulation. Since we’ve known about RSA since the early 80s, it seems reasonable to pay more attention to it.