Petrova Kate, Nevarez Michael D, Rice Jenna, Waldinger Robert J, Preacher Kristopher J, Schulz Marc S
Psychology Department, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA.
Affect Sci. 2021 Jan 12;2(1):1-13. doi: 10.1007/s42761-020-00027-5. eCollection 2021 Mar.
Past research suggests that higher coherence between feelings and physiology under stress may confer regulatory advantages. Research and theory also suggest that higher resting vagal tone (rVT) may promote more adaptive responses to stress. The present study examines the roles of response system coherence (RSC; defined as the within-individual covariation between feelings and heart rate over time) and rVT in mediating the links between childhood adversity and later-life responses to acute stressors. Using data from 279 adults from the Second Generation Study of the Harvard Study of Adult Development who completed stressful public speaking and mental arithmetic tasks, we find that individuals who report more childhood adversity have lower RSC, but not lower rVT. We further find that lower RSC mediates the association between adversity and slower cardiovascular recovery. Higher rVT in the present study is linked to less intense cardiovascular reactivity to stress, but not to quicker recovery or to the subjective experience of negative affect after the stressful tasks. Additional analyses indicate links between RSC and mindfulness and replicate previous findings connecting RSC to emotion regulation and well-being outcomes. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the idea that uncoupling between physiological and emotional streams of affective experiences may be one of the mechanisms connecting early adversity to later-life affective responses. These findings also provide evidence that RSC and rVT are associated with distinct aspects of self-regulation under stress.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-020-00027-5.
过去的研究表明，压力下情感与生理之间更高的一致性可能带来调节优势。研究和理论还表明，更高的静息迷走神经张力（rVT）可能促进对应激的更适应性反应。本研究考察了反应系统一致性（RSC；定义为情感与心率随时间的个体内协变）和rVT在介导童年逆境与成年后对急性应激源反应之间联系中的作用。利用来自哈佛成人发展研究第二代研究中279名成年人的数据，这些人完成了有压力的公开演讲和心算任务，我们发现报告童年逆境更多的个体RSC较低，但rVT并不低。我们进一步发现，较低的RSC介导了逆境与心血管恢复较慢之间的关联。本研究中较高的rVT与对应激的心血管反应性较弱有关，但与更快的恢复或应激任务后负面情绪的主观体验无关。额外分析表明RSC与正念之间存在联系，并重复了之前将RSC与情绪调节和幸福感结果联系起来的研究发现。综合来看，这些发现与以下观点一致，即情感体验的生理和情感流之间的解耦可能是将早期逆境与成年后情感反应联系起来的机制之一。这些发现还提供了证据，表明RSC和rVT与压力下自我调节的不同方面相关。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s42761-020-00027-5获取的补充材料。
