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Young Children's Physiological Reactivity during Memory Recall: Associations with Posttraumatic Stress and Parent

Sarah A O Gray1, Rebecca S Lipschutz2, Mike S Scheeringa3

  • 1Department of Psychology, Tulane School of Science & Engineering, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, 6400 Freret St, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA. Sgray4@tulane.edu.

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
|July 7, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Young children with PTSD show higher autonomic reactivity during trauma recall. Parent-child physiological synchrony may be protective for children exposed to trauma but without PTSD.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pediatric Health

Background:

  • Autonomic reactivity is crucial for stress response and social engagement, key in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  • Limited research exists on autonomic reactivity in pediatric PTSD samples.
  • No studies have explored physiological synchrony between children with PTSD and their caregivers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate autonomic reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia - RSA) in young children with PTSD.
  • To examine parent-child physiological synchrony during memory recall tasks.
  • To understand the relationship between children's psychopathology and physiological synchrony in trauma-exposed youth.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited 247 young children (40% with PTSD) and their caregivers.
  • Measured children's RSA at baseline and during trauma/non-trauma memory recall.
  • Analyzed the correlation between parent and child RSA patterns.

Main Results:

  • Children with PTSD exhibited significantly higher RSA reactivity during traumatic memory recall compared to other groups.
  • Parent-child RSA synchrony was positively correlated during trauma recall in children exposed to trauma but without PTSD.
  • This suggests physiological synchrony might be protective in trauma contexts.

Conclusions:

  • Young children with PTSD display distinct physiological reactivity patterns.
  • Parent-child physiological synchrony may play a protective role for children exposed to trauma.
  • Children's psychopathology is associated with parent-child physiological synchrony in trauma-exposed youth.

Keywords:
Emotion regulationParent-child relationshipPosttraumatic stress disorderRespiratory sinus arrhythmiaTraumaVagal tone

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