James Kiera M, Woody Mary L, Feurer Cope, Kudinova Anastacia Y, Gibb Brandon E
Center for Affective Science, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA.
Center for Affective Science, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA.
Biol Psychol. 2017 Dec;130:22-29. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.10.003. Epub 2017 Oct 13.
The goal of this study was to examine physiological reactivity during parent-child interactions in children with and without a history of suicidal ideation (SI), a group known to be at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in the future. We also examined the potential moderating role of parental expressed emotion-criticism (EE-Crit) to determine whether the presence of parental criticism may help to identify a subgroup of children with a history of SI most at risk for physiological dysregulation.
Participants were 396 children (age 7-11; 54% male, 71.7% Caucasian) and their biological parent. Children's levels of high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) were assessed during a resting baseline period followed by a positive and negative discussion with their parent. Additionally, parents completed the Five-Minute Speech Sample to determine levels of EE-Crit toward their child, and children completed an interview assessing their history of SI.
Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that exposure to parental criticism moderated the relation between a child's history of SI and their HF-HRV reactivity to the discussions. Specifically, while most children exhibited the typical pattern of HF-HRV suppression from baseline to both interactions, the highest risk children (i.e., children with a history of SI who also had highly critical parents) did not display any change in HF-HRV across the tasks, suggesting a failure to engage a typical psychophysiological response during emotional contexts.
These results suggest a specific physiological mechanism that may place these children at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in the future.
本研究的目的是考察有和没有自杀意念（SI）病史的儿童在亲子互动过程中的生理反应，这一群体在未来出现自杀想法和行为的风险较高。我们还考察了父母表达性情绪-批评（EE-Crit）的潜在调节作用，以确定父母批评的存在是否有助于识别出有SI病史且生理调节失调风险最高的儿童亚组。
参与者为396名儿童（7至11岁；54%为男性，71.7%为白人）及其亲生父母。在静息基线期评估儿童的高频心率变异性（HF-HRV）水平，随后与他们的父母进行一次积极和消极的讨论。此外，父母完成五分钟言语样本以确定对孩子的EE-Crit水平，儿童完成一次访谈以评估他们的SI病史。
与我们的假设一致，我们发现接触父母批评调节了儿童SI病史与其对讨论的HF-HRV反应之间的关系。具体而言，虽然大多数儿童在从基线到两种互动过程中都表现出典型的HF-HRV抑制模式，但风险最高的儿童（即有SI病史且父母批评程度高的儿童）在各项任务中HF-HRV没有任何变化，这表明他们在情绪情境中未能产生典型的心理生理反应。
这些结果表明了一种特定的生理机制，可能使这些儿童在未来面临自杀想法和行为的风险。
