Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2024 May;36(2):691-708. doi: 10.1017/S095457942200150X. Epub 2023 Feb 3.
This study investigated the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) coordination in response to emotion in girls' and boys' development of relational (e.g., ignoring, excluding) and physical (e.g., hitting, kicking) aggression. Caregivers reported on children's relational and physical aggression at ages 6, 7, 8, and 10 years ( = 232, 50.4% girls, 46.6% Latinx). Sympathetic nervous system (assessed via pre-ejection period) and parasympathetic nervous system (assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia) reactivity were measured in response to video clips depicting fear, happiness, and sadness at age 7. Growth curve models indicated that ANS reactivity to sadness, but not to fear or happiness, was related to trajectories of relational aggression. In contrast, ANS reactivity to all three emotions was associated with trajectories of physical aggression. Effects differed across genders, indicating that distinct patterns of ANS reactivity to emotion may be involved in girls' and boys' development of aggression. Overall, these findings contribute to a growing literature documenting the role of ANS reactivity to emotion in aggressive behavior. Moreover, this study considers ANS reactivity to specific emotions, as related to both relational and physical aggression, and as differentially expressed among girls versus boys.
本研究探讨了自主神经系统（ANS）协调在女孩和男孩发展关系（例如忽视、排斥）和身体（例如打、踢）攻击方面对情绪反应的作用。看护人在孩子 6、7、8 和 10 岁时报告了他们的关系和身体攻击情况（=232，50.4%女孩，46.6%拉丁裔）。在 7 岁时，通过视频片段测量了儿童对恐惧、快乐和悲伤的交感神经系统（通过预射前期评估）和副交感神经系统（通过呼吸窦性心律失常评估）反应性。增长曲线模型表明，对悲伤的 ANS 反应性，但对恐惧或快乐没有反应性，与关系攻击的轨迹有关。相比之下，对所有三种情绪的 ANS 反应性与身体攻击的轨迹有关。这些影响在性别之间存在差异，这表明对情绪的不同 ANS 反应模式可能与女孩和男孩的攻击发展有关。总的来说，这些发现有助于越来越多的文献记录 ANS 对情绪反应在攻击行为中的作用。此外，本研究考虑了 ANS 对特定情绪的反应性，这些情绪与关系和身体攻击都有关，并且在女孩和男孩之间表现出不同的表达。
