Fanti Kostas A, Konikkou Katerina, Georgiou Giorgos, Petridou Maria, Demetriou Chara, Soursou Georgia, Kyranides Melina Nicole
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Child Dev. 2023 Mar;94(2):363-379. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13865. Epub 2022 Oct 11.
This study investigated whether the associations between parental distress with conduct problems (CPs) and prosocial behaviors (PBs) are moderated by children's skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR) reactivity to fear. Participants were 147 Greek-Cypriot children (M = 7.30, 44.2% girls), selected from a larger screening sample (data were collected from 2015 to 2018). Longitudinal associations suggested that children with high HR reactivity to fear were more likely to display PB, whereas those with low SC reactivity were more likely to engage in CP behaviors. In contrast, interaction effects suggested that children high on SC reactivity to fear were more susceptible to the effects of parental distress, as indicated by their higher vulnerability to engage in CP (cross-sectionally) behaviors and their lower scores on PB (cross-sectionally and longitudinally).
