Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Jul;63(5):1146-1155. doi: 10.1002/dev.22066. Epub 2020 Dec 11.
Early stressful events negatively affect emotional and physical well-being. Cardiac vagal tone (CVT), which is associated with better emotional and physical well-being, usually gradually increase in early childhood. Nonetheless, children's CVT developmental trajectories are greatly variable, such that CVT can increase or decrease across the years. The present study examines the longitudinal effects of early stressful events and the role of 4 years CVT developmental trajectory on children's emotional and physical well-being. Forty-two 4-year-old children were enrolled. Number of stressful events and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were collected at T1. ECG was registered again after one (T2), two (T3) and three (T4) years. Children's emotional and physical well-being were assessed at T4 through the Child Health and Illness Profile - Child Edition (CHIP-CE). CVT development was calculated as the angular coefficient, reflecting the developmental trajectory of CVT across the four timepoints. Results yielded that higher experienced stressful events predicted poorer emotional and physical well-being after 4 years. The interaction between the number of stressful events and CVT development emerged on physical well-being. Early stressful events negatively affect long-term children's emotional and physical well-being while a positive CVT development seems to mitigate the negative effects of early stressful events on physical well-being.
早期的压力事件会对情绪和身体健康产生负面影响。心脏迷走神经张力（CVT）与更好的情绪和身体健康相关，通常在儿童早期逐渐增加。尽管如此，儿童 CVT 的发展轨迹差异很大，因此 CVT 可以在多年内增加或减少。本研究探讨了早期压力事件的纵向影响，以及 4 年 CVT 发展轨迹对儿童情绪和身体健康的作用。研究纳入了 42 名 4 岁儿童。在 T1 时收集了压力事件的数量和静息心电图（ECG）。在 T2（一年后）、T3（两年后）和 T4（三年后）再次进行了 ECG 登记。在 T4 时，通过儿童健康和疾病概况-儿童版（CHIP-CE）评估了儿童的情绪和身体健康。CVT 发展是作为角度系数计算的，反映了 CVT 在四个时间点的发展轨迹。结果表明，经历更多的压力事件预测了 4 年后情绪和身体健康较差。压力事件数量和 CVT 发展之间的相互作用出现在身体健康上。早期的压力事件会对儿童的长期情绪和身体健康产生负面影响，而积极的 CVT 发展似乎可以减轻早期压力事件对身体健康的负面影响。
