Department of Psychology.
School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute for Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences, Monash University.
Emotion. 2019 Sep;19(6):992-1001. doi: 10.1037/emo0000500. Epub 2018 Nov 26.
Lower resting vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) is thought to reflect poorer function of the neurophysiological pathways underlying emotion regulation (ER) and thus, poorer ER abilities. Sex differences in resting HRV exists such that women typically exhibit higher resting HRV than men. It is proposed that greater HRV in women reflects compensation for greater negative affect such as anxiety and depression. However, research has not yet investigated how the association between resting HRV and every day perceived difficulties in ER may be moderated by sex. The current study sought to test this in a sample of 362 young participants (207 females, mean age of 19). Resting HRV was assessed during a 5-min baseline period using an electrocardiogram. Participants then completed the 36-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) designed to evaluate participant's daily difficulties in ER. Controlling for several covariates, sex significantly moderated the relationship between resting HRV and ER difficulties, such that women showed a much stronger relationship compared with men. Specifically, women with lower HRV reported greater difficulties in ER compared with men with lower HRV, whereas women with higher HRV reported slightly lesser difficulties in ER compared with all men. Overall, this study supports a deeper understanding of how neurophysiological differences in ER between men and women-as indexed by resting HRV-may contribute to how effectively individuals regulate their emotions on a day-to-day basis, with implications for well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
较低的静息迷走神经介导的心率变异性（HRV）被认为反映了情绪调节（ER）神经生理途径的功能较差，因此，ER 能力较差。静息 HRV 存在性别差异，女性通常比男性表现出更高的静息 HRV。有人提出，女性的 HRV 较大反映了对焦虑和抑郁等更大负面情绪的补偿。然而，研究尚未调查静息 HRV 与日常 ER 困难之间的关联如何受到性别的调节。本研究旨在在 362 名年轻参与者（207 名女性，平均年龄 19 岁）样本中测试这一点。使用心电图在 5 分钟的基线期评估静息 HRV。然后，参与者完成了 36 项情绪调节困难量表（DERS），旨在评估参与者日常情绪调节困难。在控制了几个协变量后，性别显著调节了静息 HRV 和 ER 困难之间的关系，女性的关系比男性强得多。具体来说，与 HRV 较低的男性相比，HRV 较低的女性报告 ER 困难更大，而与所有男性相比，HRV 较高的女性报告 ER 困难略小。总体而言，这项研究支持了更深入的理解，即 ER 中男女之间的神经生理差异——以静息 HRV 为指标——如何有助于个体在日常生活中有效地调节情绪，对幸福感有影响。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。
