Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2022 Nov;64(7):e22323. doi: 10.1002/dev.22323.
Temperamental risk, such as surgency, negative affect, and poor effortful control, has been posited as a predictor of externalizing symptom development. However, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity underlying processes of reactivity and regulation may moderate associations between early temperament and later externalizing behaviors during early childhood. The aim of the present study was to examine how interactions between resting sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) activity at age 5 may moderate associations between temperamental risk at age 3 and externalizing behavior at age 6 (n = 87). Results demonstrate different interactions between resting ANS activity and temperamental risk to predict externalizing behaviors. For children with lower SNS activation at rest, surgency was positively associated with externalizing behaviors. Negative affect was positively associated with externalizing behaviors except when there were either high levels of SNS and PNS activity or low levels of SNS and PNS activity. Effortful control was not associated with externalizing behaviors, though SNS and PNS activity interacted to predict externalizing behaviors after accounting for effortful control. Taken together, the results highlight the importance to examine multisystem resting physiological activity as a moderator of associations between temperamental risk and the development of externalizing behaviors.
气质风险，如冲动、消极情绪和较差的努力控制，被认为是外化症状发展的预测因子。然而，自主神经系统（ANS）活动在反应和调节过程中的作用可能会调节儿童早期气质风险与后期外化行为之间的关联。本研究的目的是检验 5 岁时静息交感神经（SNS）和副交感神经（PNS）活动之间的相互作用如何调节 3 岁时的气质风险与 6 岁时的外化行为之间的关联（n=87）。结果表明，静息自主神经活动与气质风险之间的不同相互作用可以预测外化行为。对于静息时 SNS 激活水平较低的儿童，冲动与外化行为呈正相关。消极情绪与外化行为呈正相关，但当 SNS 和 PNS 活动水平较高或较低时除外。努力控制与外化行为无关，但在考虑到努力控制后，SNS 和 PNS 活动的相互作用可以预测外化行为。总之，这些结果强调了检查多系统静息生理活动作为气质风险与外化行为发展之间关联的调节剂的重要性。
