A Systematic Review on Parent-Child Synchrony: The Role of Stress, Resilience and Psychopathology

Biobehavioral synchrony is defined as a reciprocal and temporal coordination that can be observed during interpersonal interactions between two or more individuals. It can encompass facial expressions, vocalization, mutual gaze as well as other physiological measures. Synchrony has commonly been measured in interactional exchanges highlighting the relational qualities and the content of the interactions between individuals. Recent literature assessed synchrony by stress-inducing tasks or while measuring stress in individuals during interactions, to index an interaction between stress and synchrony. This study provides the first systematic review to understand which role synchrony plays within families in the context of stress. A systematic search was conducted on Scopus, PubMed and PsycNET using the following keywords to identify studies: ["synchrony" and ("stress" or "resilience") and ("family" or "parents" or "father" or "mother" or "child" or "adolescent" or "infant")]. A total of 55 English, peer-reviewed articles assessing biobehavioral synchrony together with stress or resilience in the family context were selected. The results show that parenting stress is associated with less synchrony. However, when all members of the family were faced with the same stressor (such as a stress inducing task), there was a reduction of stress levels and increased positive affect within the family. Dyads who had high levels of emotion regulation were shown to synchronize better with one another than those who showed emotion dysregulation or negative affect. Some findings indicate that psychopathologies, notably depression, is associated with lower levels of synchrony in dyads. Stress within the family has been shown to play a role in the interaction between synchrony levels and behavioral and emotional regulations in children. The findings highlight the extent to which synchrony may be associated with family dynamics. In this sense, synchrony may help families face stress and hardships by facilitating the transmission of resilience and helping family members be more in harmony with one another.