Cardiac vagal regulation differentiates among children at risk for behavior problems

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.09.005

Biological Psychology

Volume 74, Issue 2, February 2007, Pages 144-153

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.09.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

A sample of 335 five-year-old children participating in an ongoing longitudinal study was the focus of a study on the effects of emotional and behavioral challenge on cardiac activity in children with different patterns of early childhood behavior problems. The children were placed in one of three behavior problem groups (low behavior problems, risk for externalizing problems, risk for mixed externalizing/internalizing problems) based on their scores on the Child Behavior Checklist for 4–18-year-olds [Achenbach, T.M., 1991. Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18, YSR & TRF profiles. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry, Burlington, VT], completed by their mothers. To assess cardiac vagal regulation, resting measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA change (vagal withdrawal) to five emotionally and behaviorally challenging tasks were derived. In addition, heart period (HP) and heart period change (HR acceleration) was examined. Results indicated that the behavior problem groups did not differ in terms of resting measures of either RSA or HP. Analyses of the challenge tasks indicated that the children at risk for mixed problems displayed greater cardiac vagal withdrawal across the five tasks than did the other two groups of children. There was a trend for the children at risk for externalizing problems to display less vagal withdrawal than the control group. In addition, the children at risk for mixed problems displayed greater heart rate acceleration to the tasks than did the other two groups of children. Follow-up analyses indicated that the greater cardiac acceleration observed in the mixed group was largely a function of greater vagal withdrawal. These findings are discussed in terms of the emotion regulatory function of cardiac vagal regulation, and its implications for patterns of risk for behavior problems in young children.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants for this study were recruited as part of an ongoing longitudinal study that began when children were 2 years old. At the original 2-year assessment, 447 families participated (215 males). Because the original study was designed to the trajectories of early externalizing behavior problems, the original sample was overselected for externalizing problems, with 37% of the sample displaying elevated externalizing symptoms at age 2 years. Further details about the original sample

Preliminary analyses

Preliminary analyses examined whether there were any relations between sex, race, age, height, weight, or SES and the physiological measures and behavior problem groups. The behavior problem groups did not differ on any of these measures. The physiological measures of baseline RSA and HP and task RSA and HP were unrelated to all the measures except sex. Across all five tasks, boys displayed higher HP (lower HR) than did girls, F(1,259) = 4.09, p < .04. Subsequent analyses of HP and HP change

Discussion

One broad goal of this study was to understand the patterns of cardiac activity and regulation that may be observed in young children at risk for different patterns of externalizing behavior problems. Although these children are thought to have significant deficits in the regulation of behavior and emotion (Keenan and Shaw, 2003), prior work on the physiological indicators of such problems has been limited in its focus on older boys with little research conducted on younger samples of boys and

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health awards (MH 55625 and MH 55584) to the first author and an NIMH award (MH 58144) to the first and third authors. The authors would like to thank Kathryn Degnan, Rachel Nas, Cynthia Smith, Caitlin Stone, and Michelle Wilkinson for their help in subject recruitment and data collection and coding. The authors also thank the families who generously gave their time to participate in the study.

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Cardiac vagal regulation differentiates among children at risk for behavior problems

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Preliminary analyses

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

International Journal of Psychophysiology

Physiology and Behavior

Biological Psychology

Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Infant Behavior and Development

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Integrative Guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18, YSR & TRF Profiles

National survey of problems and competencies among four-to-sixteen-year-olds: parents’ reports for normative and clinical samples

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

Vagal tone, development, and Gray's motivational theory: toward an integrated model of autonomic nervous system functioning in psychopathology

Development and Psychopathology

Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Application

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

Developmental Psychobiology

Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotional regulation

Cardiac vagal tone indices of temperamental reactivity and behavioral regulation in young children

Developmental Psychobiology

Physiological and behavioral regulation in two-year-old children with aggressive/destructive behavior problems

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

Frustration in infancy: implications for emotion regulation, physiological processes, and temperament

Infancy

Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: a multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression

Development and Psychopathology

Cardiac vagal regulation across the preschool period: stability, continuity, and implications for childhood adjustment

Developmental Psychobiology

Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues

Short-term stability of physiological measures in kindergarten children: respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart period, and cortisol

Developmental Psychobiology

The relations of regulation and emotionality to problem behavior in elementary school

Development and Psychopathology

The role of emotionality and regulation in children's social functioning: a longitudinal study

Child Development

Stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and young adolescents

Developmental Psychobiology

Psychophysiological correlates of emotional reactivity during the first year of life

Developmental Psychology

Dynamic cerebral processes underlying emotion regulation

The development of self-control of emotion: intrinsic and extrinsic influences

Motivation and Emotion

Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing problems in early childhood

Development and Psychopathology

The Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (LAB-TAB)

Issues of taxonomy and comorbidity in the development of conduct disorder

Development and Psychopathology