Oosterman Mirjam, Schuengel Carlo
Department of Clinical Child and Family Studies Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Van der Boechorststraat 1 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Dev Psychobiol. 2007 Mar;49(2):119-28. doi: 10.1002/dev.20207.
This study examined physiological effects of separation and reunion in a sample 3- to 6-year-old children. Using continuous ambulatory recording, changes in heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and pre-ejection period (PEP) were compared across the episodes of a separation-reunion procedure based on the strange situation. RSA decreased significantly over the course of the procedure as well as on separation from the parent and not the stranger, supporting that separation from the attachment figure elicited vagal withdrawal in young children. The absence of significant PEP effects suggest that the separation-reunion procedure, and more specifically separation from the parent, was not threatening enough to activate the sympathetic nervous system, even if children were insecure attached and inhibited with regard to strangers. Some of the variability in HR increases to reunion was explained by younger age. The findings highlight the role of the ANS as a regulatory process in the parent-child relationship.
本研究考察了3至6岁儿童样本中分离与重聚的生理效应。采用连续动态记录法，基于陌生情境下的分离-重聚程序各阶段，比较心率（HR）、呼吸性窦性心律不齐（RSA）和射血前期（PEP）的变化。在整个程序过程中以及与父母而非陌生人分离时，RSA显著降低，这支持了与依恋对象分离会引发幼儿迷走神经活动减退的观点。PEP无显著效应表明，分离-重聚程序，尤其是与父母的分离，即便儿童对陌生人存在不安全依恋且表现出抑制行为，其威胁程度也不足以激活交感神经系统。年龄较小可解释重聚时HR升高的部分变异性。研究结果凸显了自主神经系统在亲子关系中作为一种调节过程的作用。
