Child Effortful Control Moderates the Link Between Parenting Stress and Child Parasympathetic Regulation
Interactions Across Contexts and Measures
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9685917 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aubrey B Golden (0009-0003-2931-5073, Department of Human Ecology University of California, Davis Davis California USA, corresponding author), Daniel Ewon Choe (0000-0002-3867-855X, Department of Human Ecology University of California, Davis Davis California USA), Leah C Hibel (0000-0002-6548-6975, Department of Human Ecology University of California, Davis Davis California USA), Madeline R Olwert (0000-0001-5439-2378, Department of Human Ecology University of California, Davis Davis California USA) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | e70059-e70059 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developmental Psychobiology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-1630 • E-ISSN: 1098-2302 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/dev.70059 |
| PMID | 40572036 |
| OpenAlex | W4411705221 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 120 |
Parenting stress—psychosocial challenges from the parental role—is strongly tied to children's self‐regulatory abilities. Although cognitive and physiological facets of self‐regulation are integrated, research on parenting stress and children's parasympathetic activity is virtually absent. Additionally, few studies have examined changes in children's parasympathetic regulation across settings with and without a parent present. This study examined whether parenting stress is differentially associated with children's parasympathetic activity, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), as a function of their effortful control (EC). We tested whether interactions varied across EC measures (parent‐reported vs. task‐assessed) and the context of children's physiology assessment (child vs. parent–child). Parents ( N = 67, M = 38.01 years) and children ( N = 70, M = 51.41 months) provided data during a 2‐h lab visit. Results showed that parent‐reported EC moderated the association only in the parent–child context, whereas the task‐assessed EC moderation effect was present in both contexts. However, the effect of parenting stress on child RSA at levels of task‐assessed EC differed across contexts. Parallels in patterns of findings are discussed with reference to ecological affinity and whether a similar adaptive process emerges when both cognitive and physiological self‐regulation are assessed under comparable contextual demands
Cognition · Context (archaeology) · Developmental psychology · Heart rate · Heart rate variability · Moderation · Self-control · Vagal tone · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Psychology
Beyond Risk and Protective Factors
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Commonalities and Differences in the Research on Children’s Effortful Control and Executive Function
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The relationship between cognition and action
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A Critical Evaluation of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) in a Head Start Population
The polyvagal perspective
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| Highly cited | No |
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