Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 119 Health & Human Development Building, State College, PA, 16802, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 Dec;49(12):1537-1549. doi: 10.1007/s10802-021-00844-7. Epub 2021 Jul 2.
The inability to regulate affective arousal in the context of frustration may jeopardize children's ability to form successful friendships, especially as new peer groups are formed during the transition to kindergarten. While substantial research has utilized teacher reports of children's socioemotional behavior, there is less empirical evidence on the peer perspective. The present study utilized data from n = 235 kindergarteners (54% high in disruptive behavior) recruited for a multicomponent intervention. We examined whether physiological reactivity to frustration was associated with children's social success. Peer nominations of liking or disliking to play with the child were used to compute a social preference score, where negative values reflect greater rejection than acceptance. Multilevel growth modeling was employed to capture changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity across a manipulated inhibitory control task administered in 3 blocks, with differing algorithms embedded to induce affect: points were earned in the 1st and 3rd blocks (reward) and lost during the 2nd block (frustration). Groups did not differ in RSA reactivity during the 1st block, but children who experience greater peer rejection showed significant decreases in RSA (increases in arousal) across frustration. This increased arousal persisted across the 3rd block despite the reinstatement of reward, indicating a greater degree of reactivity and a lack of recovery relative to peer-accepted children. Teacher screenings of disruptive behavior only partially aligned with peer ratings of acceptance, highlighting the benefits of leveraging peer report to capture regulatory functioning and identify children for intervention recruitment.
无法在挫折情境中调节情感唤醒可能会危及儿童形成成功友谊的能力，尤其是在过渡到幼儿园期间形成新的同伴群体时。虽然大量研究利用教师报告来评估儿童的社会情绪行为，但关于同伴视角的实证证据较少。本研究利用了从 n = 235 名幼儿园儿童（54%具有较高的破坏性行为）的数据，这些儿童被招募参加一项多成分干预。我们研究了挫折时的生理反应是否与儿童的社交成功有关。通过同伴提名喜欢或不喜欢与孩子一起玩来计算社交偏好得分，其中负值反映出更多的拒绝而不是接受。采用多层次增长模型来捕捉在 3 个模块中进行的操纵性抑制控制任务中呼吸窦性心律失常（RSA）反应的变化，每个模块中都嵌入了不同的算法来引发情感：在第 1 个和第 3 个模块中获得分数（奖励），在第 2 个模块中失去分数（挫折）。两组在第 1 个模块中的 RSA 反应没有差异，但经历更多同伴排斥的儿童在整个挫折过程中 RSA 显著下降（唤醒增加）。尽管恢复了奖励，但这种唤醒仍持续到第 3 个模块，这表明与被同伴接受的儿童相比，他们的反应性更高，恢复能力更差。教师对破坏性行为的筛查与同伴对接受度的评价仅部分一致，这突出了利用同伴报告来捕捉调节功能并识别需要干预的儿童的好处。
