Mother-Child Neurophysiological Synchrony Moderates the Relation Between Maternal Affect Experiences and Child...

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Child emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology.
• Understanding child emotion regulation requires evaluating individual and dyadic indicators across multiple levels.
• The parent-child emotion regulation dynamics model emphasizes the role of the parent-child relationship in child emotion regulation development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the interacting role of maternal affect experiences with dyadic neurophysiological processes in relation to child emotion dysregulation.
• To test the parent-child emotion regulation dynamics model using a multimethod, multilevel approach.
• To investigate how synchrony in physiological and neural activity between mothers and children influences child emotion dysregulation.

Main Methods:

• Eighty mothers and their school-age children completed a dyadic stress task.
• Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activation were measured for both mothers and children.
• Maternal affect experiences and child emotion dysregulation were assessed, alongside mother-child synchrony in RSA and dlPFC activation.

Main Results:

• Maternal positive affect was most strongly and negatively associated with child emotion dysregulation in the context of positive RSA and dlPFC synchrony.
• The association between maternal positive affect and child emotion dysregulation was negative and weakest with negative RSA and dlPFC synchrony.
• Findings indicate that multilevel synchrony processes significantly impact child emotion dysregulation.

Conclusions:

• Empirical support for the parent-child emotion regulation dynamics model was found.
• Dyadic neurophysiological synchrony interacts with maternal affect to influence child emotion dysregulation.
• Multilevel synchrony is crucial for understanding and potentially intervening in child emotion dysregulation, a key indicator of psychopathology.