Applying the polyvagal theory to children's emotion regulation: Social context, socialization, and adjustment

Effective emotion regulation is essential for children's positive development. Polyvagal theory provides a framework for understanding how parasympathetic regulation of cardiac activity contributes to children's adaptive versus maladaptive functioning. Maintenance of cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) under social challenge should support emotion regulation and behavioral adjustment. Children's effective parasympathetic regulation and behavioral adjustment should be supported by appropriate parental socialization. These proposals were evaluated in a short-term longitudinal study of 94 preschool-aged children. Parenting and basal RSA were measured at home, then 6-10 months later behavioral adjustment and RSA in lab baseline and socially challenging contexts were measured. Children with relatively higher RSA in social challenge than at baseline (DeltaRSA) had fewer internalizing problems (IP) and externalizing problems (EP), and better behavioral self-regulation (SR). Mothers who used more negative control had children with lower DeltaRSA, more IP and EP, and less SR. Structural equation modeling showed that vagal regulation mediated associations between maternal negative control and children's adjustment; maternal negative control did not predict EP or SR after accounting for DeltaRSA. Associations were consistent across boys and girls, with one exception: Higher DeltaRSA was significantly associated with fewer EP in boys only. These findings suggest that the practical significance of physiological regulation might be best revealed in ecologically valid procedures, and that children's physiological mechanisms of emotion regulation are shaped by their experiences of parental socialization.     

Return to school accompanied by changing associations between family ecology and cortisol

This study examines everyday family life as a social regulator of child adrenocortical activity during the normative challenge of return to school. If positive family function facilitates child adaptation, we expected that mother-child relationships following school entry would predict individual differences in evening cortisol, a context-sensitive marker for the response to concurrent demands. Among 28 children followed longitudinally, late in pre-kindergarten those living with single and/or employed mothers had higher evening cortisol. Yet early during the following school year, children with poorer mother-child relationships had higher evening cortisol. Cortisol awakening response, a comparatively stable marker of anticipated demands, was higher with maternal employment, single parents, and busier child schedules before school re-entry, and with maternal employment afterwards. We argue for a layered ecological approach to social regulation, recognizing that family structure, family functioning, and proximal features of everyday life within the family moderate child adrenocortical activity differently across contexts.     

Relationship of maternal negative moods to child emotion regulation during family interaction

The relationship of maternal hostile and depressive moods to children's downregulation of unprovoked anger and sadness/fear was assessed in a community sample of 267 5-year-old boys and girls. The speed of children's downregulation of unprovoked anger and sadness/fear was based on real-time observations during mother-child interaction. The association of downregulation with maternal mood was estimated using Bayesian event history analysis. As mothers reported higher depressive mood, both boys and girls were faster to downregulate anger displays as those displays accumulated during mother child interaction. The speed of boys' downregulation of anger and of sadness/fear was not associated with maternal hostile mood. As mothers reported more hostile mood, girls were faster to downregulate displays of sadness/fear, but the speed of this downregulation slowed as those displays accumulated during ongoing mother-child interaction. These associations of child downregulation and maternal mood were observed after controlling for child adjustment. The data suggest frequent exposure to different negative maternal moods affect children's expression and regulation of emotions in relatively specific ways, conditional on the type of maternal mood, the type of child emotion, and child gender.     

The quality of the mother-child relationship in high-risk dyads: application of the Emotional Availability Scales in an intergenerational, longitudinal study

The present research examined how family psychosocial risk may be associated with emotional availability (EA) across age and time in two longitudinal, intergenerational studies with high-risk, disadvantaged mother-child dyads. Study 1 examined dyads during preschool and middle childhood. Study 2 examined a different sample of dyads, tested intensively at five time points (6, 12, and 18 months; preschool; and school age). Across studies, maternal childhood histories of aggression and social withdrawal predicted negative EA (higher levels of maternal hostility) during mother-child interactions at preschool age. In Study 1, mothers with higher levels of social withdrawal during childhood had preschoolers who were less appropriately responsive to and involving of their mothers during interactions. In Study 2, higher levels of observed appropriate maternal structuring predicted child responsiveness while observed maternal sensitivity (and structuring) predicted observed child involvement. More maternal social support and better home environment combined with lower stress predicted better mother-child relationship quality. Findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on EA by focusing on a high-risk community sample across time and generations. Results are interpreted in light of the developmental psychopathology framework, and have implications for a broader understanding of how EA is related to parental history and personal characteristics, as well as ongoing family and environmental context.     

Attachment security and parenting quality predict children's problem-solving, attributions, and loneliness with peers

The influence of early relational experience on later social understanding has evoked rich theoretical discussion but relatively little empirical inquiry. Enlisting data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, measures of the security of attachment in infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, together with measures of parenting quality (maternal sensitivity and depressive symptoms) gathered longitudinally throughout infancy and early childhood, were used to predict differences in children's thoughts and feelings about peers (i.e., social problem solving, negative attributional biases, aggressive solutions to ambiguous social situations, and self-reported loneliness) when children were 54 months and in first grade. Relational experiences, especially before 36 months, were significantly predictive of later peer-related representations. Attachment security at 24 and 36 months was associated with enhanced social problem-solving skills and less loneliness, but security of attachment at 15 months was nonpredictive. Early maternal sensitivity was positively associated with later social problem-solving and negatively with aggressive responses, and early maternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with children's negative attributions. Concurrent parenting quality was also associated with children's thoughts and feelings about peers, but less consistently. These findings shed new light on how early relational experiences may contribute to social information processing with peers at the end of the preschool years, and that the timing of relational influences may be crucial.     

Shared or conflicting working models? Relationships in postdivorce families seen through the eyes of mothers and their preschool children

Marvin and Stewart and Byng-Hall proposed that effective family collaboration requires family members to construct "shared family working models," and that the renegotiation of these working models during family transitions is facilitated by family members' "interactional awareness" (ability to be perceptive observers of family relationships). We apply these constructs to data collected from 71 mothers and their 4.5- to 5.0-year-old preschool children, 2 years after parental divorce. Maternal representations of the father as coparent and ex-spouse, and of father- and mother-child relationships were assessed via two interviews. A family story completion task captured child representations of mother-child and father-child, coparental and ex-spousal interactions. Maternal accounts of mother-child conversations illustrated the negotiation of shared working models. Primarily qualitative analyses contrasting maternal and child perspectives are presented in the first section. Then we use regression analyses to predict children's story themes from maternal representations of flexible, sensitive, and effective discipline-related interactions; maternal depressive symptoms; and perception of the child's father. Finally, we identify gender differences in children's enactments of divorce-related and child-empathy themes. We conclude by considering how our findings could be used to assist post-divorce families in constructing shared rather than conflicting working models of family relations.     

Role of maternal depression in perceptions of child maladjustment

We investigated (a) the relation of maternal depression to perceptions of externalizing and internalizing disorders in children and (b) quality of communication in a mother-child interaction task as a function of maternal depression and perceptions of the child. 64 children of unipolar or bipolar mothers, chronic medically ill or normal mothers were studied; clinical diagnoses, children's reports, and teachers' ratings served as objective criteria of children's maladjustment. Maternal depression defined by current symptomatology on the Beck Depression Inventory and by psychiatric status was not associated with misperceptions of psychopathology. Maternal depression interacted with children's actual behaviors to predict mothers' perceptions: nondepressed mothers were less accurate reporters of problems in children than were depressed mothers. Depressed mothers who perceived maladjustment in their disturbed children made more negative comments in interactions that did nondepressed mothers of disturbed children. The apparent mutual impact of mothers' and children's maladjustment requires fuller exploration in offspring studies.     

Sensitive, stimulating caregiving predicts cognitive and behavioral resilience in neurodevelopmentally at-risk infants

Although neurodevelopmental impairment is a risk factor for poor cognitive and behavioral outcomes, associations between early and later functioning are only moderate in magnitude, and it is likely that other factors intervene to modify this trajectory. The current study tested the hypothesis that sensitive, stimulating caregiving would promote positive behavioral and cognitive outcomes among children who were at risk based on the results of a neurodevelopmental screener and a temperament inventory. The sample comprised 1,720 infants and toddlers from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, a longitudinal study of children who were involved with child welfare services. Children were first assessed between 3 and 24 months of age and subsequently 18 months later. Children who experienced improvements in the amount of sensitive, stimulating caregiving they received had positive cognitive and behavioral outcomes 18 months later, despite early levels of neurodevelopmental risk. The association between changes in caregiving quality and changes in children's functioning was stronger for children who were removed from the care of their biological parents before the follow-up assessment than for children who remained in the care of biological parents, suggesting a causal role for caregiving quality on children's outcomes.     

Attachment behavior and mother-child conversations as predictors of attachment representations in middle childhood: a longitudinal study

This study examines longitudinal links between mother-child conversations and attachment patterns in early childhood and later attachment representations. It also tests the role of conversations as mediators in the association between behavioral security and attachment representations. Mother-child conversations (snack-time) and attachment behaviors (Separation-Reunion procedure) were assessed for 83 5.5-year-olds while attachment representations (attachment narratives) were measured at 8.5 years of age. Results showed correspondence between attachment behaviors and representations for secure-confident, ambivalent-preoccupied, and disorganized/controlling-frightened groups. Affective quality of mother-child conversations predicted both child attachment behaviors and representations. Secure and confident children showed greater integration of affective information, ambivalent and preoccupied children more affect exaggeration, and disorganized/controlling and frightened children more chaotic conversations. Avoidant children tended to show more affect minimization in conversations. Finally, mother-child conversations centered on the sharing of emotions and thoughts mediated the relation between behavioral and representational attachment security, which underscores the importance of mother-child conversations in the development of attachment representations in childhood.     

Early mother-child separation, parenting, and child well-being in Early Head Start families

Drawing on theories of attachment and family instability, this study examined associations between early mother-child separation and subsequent maternal parenting behaviors and children's outcomes in a sample of 2080 families who participated in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, the vast majority of whom were poor. Multiple regression models revealed that, controlling for baseline family and maternal characteristics and indicators of family instability, the occurrence of a mother-child separation of a week or longer within the first two years of life was related to higher levels of child negativity (at age three) and aggression (at ages three and five). The effect of separation on child aggression at age five was mediated by aggression at age three, suggesting that the effects of separation on children's aggressive behavior are early and persistent.     

Socialization of children's emotion regulation in mother-child dyads: a developmental psychopathology perspective

This study investigated the socialization of children's emotion regulation in 25 physically maltreating and 25 nonmaltreating mother-child dyads. Maltreating mothers and their 6- to 12-year-old children were recruited from two parenting programs affiliated with Children's Protective Services with a control group matched on race, SES, child gender, and child age. Children and their mothers were interviewed individually about their (a) management of emotional expression. (b) strategies for coping with emotional arousal, and (c) anticipated consequences following emotional displays. Compared to controls, maltreated children expected less maternal support in response to their emotional displays, reported being less likely to display emotions to their mothers, and generated fewer effective coping strategies for anger. Maltreating mothers indicated less understanding of children's emotional displays and fewer effective strategies for helping children to cope with emotionally arousing situations than nonmaltreating mothers. Further, findings indicated that maternal socialization practices (e.g., providing support in response to children's emotional display, generating effective coping strategies for their child) mediate the relation between child maltreatment and children's regulation of emotional expression and emotional arousal. These findings suggest that children's emotion regulation strategies are influenced by their relationship with their social environment (e.g.. physically maltreating, nonmaltreating) and that the experience of a physically maltreating relationship may interfere with children's emotional development.     

Maternal Childhood Maltreatment History and Child Mental Health: Mechanisms in Intergenerational Effects

The objectives of this study were to examine whether a maternal history of maltreatment in childhood has a detrimental impact on young children’s mental health and to test theoretically and empirically informed pathways by which maternal history may influence child mental health. Mother–child dyads (N = 187) were evaluated between birth and 64 months of age via home and laboratory observations, medical and child protection record reviews, and maternal interviews to assess maternal history of childhood maltreatment and microsystem and exosystem measures of the caregiving context, including child maltreatment, maternal caregiving quality, stress exposures, and social support. When the children were 7 years of age, mothers and teachers reported on child emotional and behavioral problems. Analyses examined whether the caregiving context variables linked maternal maltreatment history with child emotional and behavioral problems, controlling for child sex (54% male), race/ethnicity (63% White), and family sociodemographic risk at birth. Maltreated mothers experienced greater stress and diminished social support, and their children were more likely to be maltreated across early childhood. By age 7, children of maltreated mothers were at increased risk for clinically significant emotional and behavioral problems. A path analysis model showed mediation of the effects of maternal childhood maltreatment history on child symptoms, with specific effects significant for child maltreatment. Interventions that reduce child maltreatment risk and stress exposures and increase family social support may prevent deleterious effects of maternal childhood maltreatment history on child mental health.     

Maternal depression: relations with maternal caregiving representations and emotional availability during the preschool years

This longitudinal study aimed to determine whether maternal depression was related to caregiving behavior and further whether this relationship was mediated and/or moderated by maternal caregiving representations. Ninety-two mothers were assessed for symptoms of depression when their children were 4, 12, and 15 months, and later at 4 years of age. At 4 years of age, mothers' caregiving representations of their child and their relationship were examined using the Parent Development Interview (PDI), and aspects of maternal behaviors were rated during mother-child play interactions using the Emotional Availability Scales (EA). The experience of chronic maternal depression was related to lower levels of maternal sensitivity, and this association was mediated by mothers' impaired capacity to take their child's perspective. The link between depression and lower maternal sensitivity was also moderated by perspective taking, indicating that poor perspective taking had a negative impact on sensitivity only for chronically depressed mothers. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that mothers' representational models are affected by cognitive distortions associated with depression, and these distortions interfere with a mother's capacity to interact sensitively with her child.     

Behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in young children: relations with self-regulation and adaptation to preschool in children attending Head Start

We examine a parent-report version of the measure of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation of Carver and White (1994), the BIS/BAS scales. Participants included 42 children (mean age = 4 years, 9 months) attending Head Start programs. Information was collected on aspects of physiological and cognitive regulation, temperamental emotionality, BIS/BAS sensitivity, and teacher report of social competence and on-task behavior in the classroom. Physiological regulation was assessed by cardiac vagal tone and was measured during a baseline period and during the administration of a mildly effortful cognitive task. Cognitive regulation was assessed by executive function and was measured using two tasks that require children to inhibit a prepotent response while remembering and executing the rule for correct responding. Parents reported on behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation and aspects of child negative emotionality associated with fear and anger. Results indicated that the BIS scale was positively related to teacher reported social competence but negatively related to on-task behavior. Associations between the BIS and each of the outcome variables were independent of relations of physiological and cognitive regulation to outcomes and were present when relations between fearful emotionality and the outcomes were not. No relations were observed between any of the BAS scales and the outcome measures. Results recommend the application of neurobiological and psychophysiological approaches to the study of children's adaptation to preschool.     

Bidirectional genetic and environmental influences on mother and child behavior: the family system as the unit of analyses

Family systems theory proposes that an individual's functioning depends on interactive processes within the self and within the context of dyadic family subsystems. Previous research on these processes has focused largely on behavioral, cognitive, and psychophysiological properties of the individual and the dyad. The goals of this study were to explore genetic and environmental interactions within the family system by examining how the dopamine receptor D2 gene (DRD2) A1+ polymorphism in mothers and children relates to maternal sensitivity, how maternal and child characteristics might mediate those effects, and whether maternal sensitivity moderates the association between DRD2 A1+ and child affective problems. Evidence is found for an evocative effect of child polymorphism on parenting behavior, and for a moderating effect of child polymorphism on the association between maternal sensitivity and later child affective problems. Findings are discussed from a family systems perspective, highlighting the role of the family as a context for gene expression in both mothers and children.     

Observations of early triadic family interactions: boundary disturbances in the family predict symptoms of depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in middle childhood

This article argues for the importance of focusing explicitly on the construct of boundary disturbances in families to understand the development of depressive, anxious, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in middle childhood. Grounded in family systems theory, this study examined traditional parent-child antecedents of childhood depression and anxiety (hostile, controlling, and disengaged interactions) in the context of the entire family as well as enmeshed patterns, whereby one parent drew in the child by turning to the child for caregiving or intimacy and excluded the spouse, and balanced patterns, whereby all family members expressed vulnerabilities and asserted their needs or desires. Mostly White, middle-class mothers, fathers, and children were observed at home interacting on a series of everyday tasks when the children were 24 months old, and mothers and teachers rated children's symptoms of anxiety, depression, somatic problems, and ADHD at age 7. Regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for maternal depression and the effects of other family patterns, enmeshed family patterns forecast children's depressive symptoms; controlling and disengaged interactions predicted anxious and depressive symptoms; and hostility forecast ADHD and somatic complaints. Intriguing gender differences emerged. As predicted, whereas boys who experienced enmeshed family patterns more often developed symptoms of ADHD, girls who experienced enmeshed family interactions later showed symptoms of depression.     

Maternal depression and child internalizing: the moderating role of child emotion regulation.

This study tests a model of children's emotion regulation (ER) as a moderator of the link between maternal depression and child internalizing problems. Participants were 78 children (ages 4 to 7), including 45 children of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depression (COD) and 33 children of mothers who had never been depressed. ER was assessed observationally during a laboratory mood induction. ER behaviors were empirically reduced into 3 categories: (a) negative focus on delay, (b) positive reward anticipation, and (c) behavioral distraction. Linear mixed models indicated that positive reward anticipation moderated the effects of maternal COD on children's internalizing problems, particularly if mothers had current depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that generating positive affect in the face of a potential frustration may be a protective ER strategy for children at risk for depression.     

Binge alcohol consumption by non-alcohol – dependent women during pregnancy affects child behaviour,but not general intellectual functioning; a prospective controlled study

Summary Effects of binge ethanol consumption during early gestation on child neurodevelopment have not been elucidated. To study whether binge drinking affects cognitive abilities and behavior of exposed children, a prospective observational study comparing 51 children exposed to binge drinking during the first trimester of pregnancy to 51 children not exposed to any teratogens was conducted. The childrens physical development, intelligence, language abilities and behavior were assessed.Temperament test results showed that children exposed in utero to maternal binge drinking displayed a greater degree of disinhibited behavior and that this behavior was associated with early drinking variables. Although binge alcohol drinking by non-alcohol-dependent women during the first trimester of pregnancy does not appear to affect intelligence or cognitive and language development of young children, binge drinking in pregnancy does increase the likelihood of certain behavioral characteristics that might predispose these children to later behavioral dysfunction.     

Mother Perceptions and Mother-Child Interactions: Comparison of a Clinic-referred and a Nonclinic Group

The purpose of this study was to compare 40 clinic-referred conduct-disordered children and their mothers with 28 "normal" or nonclinic children and their mothers on mother behaviors, child behaviors, and mother reports of child behaviors. The study used two independent observational systems: One assessed the quantity of negative behaviors both 'in mothers and children, and the second assessed the qualitative and affective aspects of parent-child interactions. The results indicated that the two groups differed on child positive affect and dominance behaviors; on mother positive affect, submissiveness, praise, commands, and criticisms; and on maternal reports of child adjustment. Although maternal report of child:adjustment was the best discriminator between the two groups, the two observational systems provided additional information on the qualitative differences between clinic and nonclinic mother-child interactions. The implications of these findings for the assessment and treatment of conduct-disordered children and their families are discussed.     

Early intervention for low birth weight,preterm infants: the role of negative emotionality in the specification of effects

This study examined the relation of negative emotionality in infancy to child social and cognitive developmental outcomes among low birth weight (LBW) preterm infants participating in the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), a comprehensive compensatory education intervention beginning in infancy and lasting through age 3 years. In this analysis, intervention effects at age 36 months on maternal report of child behavior as assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist externalizing and internalizing scales and on intelligence as measured by the Stanford-Binet scale were largest among children characterized by higher levels of negative emotionality in infancy. Findings indicate that for LBW preterm infants characterized by negative emotionality at age 12 months the intervention was associated with a twofold decrease in the occurrence of clinically meaningful levels of behavior problems at age 3 years and a fourfold decrease in the occurrence of a high-risk profile in which both internalizing and externalizing scores are in the clinically meaningful range. The intervention was also associated with a fivefold decrease in the occurrence of IQ < or = 75 at age 3 years among children with higher levels of negative emotionality and heavier LBW (2001-2500 g). However, specific aspects of temperamental difficulty such as fearfulness and anger were related to internalizing and externalizing, respectively, in both the intervention and control groups. Findings are consistent with research linking negative emotionality in infancy with social and cognitive developmental outcomes in early childhood among normal birth weight infants. Results suggest the need for further attention to child temperament in early intervention research.