Investigating Physiology-Behavior Associations for Youth During Parent-Child Conflict Discussions

Adolescents' observed affective behavior is associated with patterns of concurrent physiological responding, which explain clinically relevant outcomes. Few studies have elucidated the physiology-behavior association during the developmentally salient context of conflict with parents. The current study evaluated associations between respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) activity and observed youth affective behavior during parent-child conflict. We took a contextually informed approach to address limitations of past research with a clinical sample of parent-child dyads (N = 162, M_youthage = 12.03 (0.92) years; 46.9% female; 42% White and non-Hispanic/Latinx; 40.7% Black; 16.7% multiracial). Dyads completed a conflict discussion during which youths' affective behaviors were observationally coded. Additionally, we measured youths' RSA and subjective affect as well as parents' negative behavior. Youths' angry/defiant behavior was predicted by faster RSA withdrawal, increases in subjective negative affect, and more negative parent behavior, whereas youths' sad/distressed and positive engagement behaviors were predicted solely by subjective negative affect and negative parent behavior, respectively. Findings underscore the importance of taking context into account to understand the physiology-behavior association among youth in developmentally salient interactions, which has implications for enhancing etiological models of psychopathology.