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Child Effortful Control Moderates the Link Between Parenting Stress and Child Parasympathetic Regulation:

Aubrey B Golden1, Daniel Ewon Choe1, Leah C Hibel1

  • 1Department of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.

Developmental Psychobiology
|June 27, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Parenting stress impacts children's self-regulation. This study found parenting stress affects children's physiological regulation (RSA) differently based on effortful control (EC) measures and context.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

Background:

  • Parenting stress is linked to children's self-regulatory abilities.
  • Research on parenting stress and children's parasympathetic activity is limited.
  • Few studies examine children's parasympathetic regulation across different contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how parenting stress relates to children's parasympathetic activity (RSA).
  • To examine the moderating role of children's effortful control (EC) on this relationship.
  • To explore variations based on EC measurement (parent-reported vs. task-assessed) and assessment context (child-only vs. parent-child).

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 67 parents and 70 children (mean age 51.41 months) during a 2-hour lab visit.
  • Assessed parenting stress, children's effortful control (parent-reported and task-assessed), and parasympathetic activity (RSA).
  • Analyzed moderation effects of EC and context on the parenting stress-RSA association.

Main Results:

  • Parent-reported EC moderated the parenting stress-RSA link only in the parent-child context.
  • Task-assessed EC moderated the link in both child-only and parent-child contexts.
  • The effect of parenting stress on RSA, moderated by task-assessed EC, varied between contexts.

Conclusions:

  • Findings highlight the context-dependent nature of parenting stress effects on child physiological regulation.
  • Effortful control plays a crucial role, with variations depending on how EC is measured and assessed.
  • Further research can explore adaptive processes in integrated cognitive and physiological self-regulation.

Keywords:
adaptationcontext‐specificityeffortful controlparasympathetic regulationparenting stressrespiratory sinus arrhythmiaself‐regulation

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