The Pennsylvania State University, United States of America.
Hunter College, CUNY, United States of America; The Graduate Center, CUNY, United States of America.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2022 Jul;177:111-121. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.05.004. Epub 2022 May 11.
Emotion regulation (ER), a key predictor of positive adjustment throughout the lifespan, is forged in development with profound contributions from parents. In particular, parent scaffolding of child cognition and emotion serves to bolster child regulatory abilities beyond what they could achieve alone. Through habitual parent-child interactions, scaffolded ER likely becomes internalized and drives foundations of neurocognitive regulatory circuitry. Yet, biobehavioral research is needed to establish predictive links between parent scaffolding behaviors and neurocognitive signatures of adaptive child ER. The present study examined observed parental spontaneous scaffolding of child performance during emotionally and cognitively challenging behavioral tasks to predict a neurocognitive signature of adaptive ER: the late positive potential (LPP). The LPP is an event-related potential (ERP) that is modulated by reappraisal, a widely-studied ER strategy defined as interpreting a stimulus in a more positive light. Reduced magnitude of the LPP via reappraisal is a signature of adaptive ER because it predicts both reduced emotional arousal and increased use of adaptive ER strategies. Ninety-seven (49 females; M = 6.96, SD = 1.15) 5 to 9 year olds were recruited along with one parent each. Parents and children then completed a cognitively challenging blocks task and a frustrating waiting task, which were subsequently coded to quantify scaffolding quality. Participants completed a Directed Reappraisal Task (DRT) in which unpleasant pictures were paired with either reappraisal or negative interpretations while EEG was recorded. Results showed that greater parental use of high-quality scaffolding predicted greater reduction of the LPP via reappraisal. These findings suggest that habitual parent scaffolding supports adaptive ER measured at the neurocognitive level in childhood. Further, results highlight the importance of examining parent-child interactions when evaluating biological processes underlying ER in childhood.
情绪调节（ER）是预测整个生命周期积极适应的关键因素，它在发展过程中受到父母的深刻影响。特别是，父母对孩子认知和情绪的支持有助于增强孩子的调节能力，超出他们独自能够达到的水平。通过习惯性的亲子互动，支持性的 ER 可能会被内化，并为神经认知调节回路的基础提供动力。然而，需要进行生物行为研究，以确定父母支持行为与适应性儿童 ER 的神经认知特征之间的预测性联系。本研究通过观察父母在情绪和认知挑战性行为任务中对孩子表现的自发支持，来预测适应性 ER 的神经认知特征：晚正电位（LPP）。LPP 是一种事件相关电位（ERP），可以通过重新评价来调节，重新评价是一种广泛研究的 ER 策略，定义为以更积极的方式解释刺激。通过重新评价降低 LPP 的幅度是适应性 ER 的一个特征，因为它预测了情绪唤醒的减少和适应性 ER 策略的增加。招募了 97 名（49 名女性；M=6.96，SD=1.15）5 至 9 岁的儿童及其一位父母。然后，父母和孩子完成了一项认知挑战性的块任务和一项令人沮丧的等待任务，随后对这些任务进行编码以量化支持的质量。参与者完成了一项定向再评价任务（DRT），在该任务中，不愉快的图片与重新评价或负面解释配对，同时记录 EEG。结果表明，父母更多地使用高质量的支持与通过重新评价更大程度地降低 LPP 有关。这些发现表明，习惯性的父母支持有助于在儿童时期测量到的神经认知层面的适应性 ER。此外，研究结果强调了在评估儿童期 ER 生物学过程时，考察亲子互动的重要性。
