Xu Jianjie, Wang Hui, Morrow Kayley Elizabeth, Wang Xinni, Gao Mengyu Miranda, Liu Sihan, Hu Yueqin, Suveg Cynthia, Han Zhuo Rachel
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai.
Dev Psychol. 2025 Aug;61(8):1441-1451. doi: 10.1037/dev0001862. Epub 2024 Oct 31.
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) inertia is the temporary dependency of RSA levels between consecutive epochs, which captures the epoch-to-epoch stickiness of RSA reactivity. Previous studies examining the developmental function of between-task RSA reactivity have yielded mixed findings and have often overlooked RSA reactivity within the task. The present study examined whether RSA inertia during a stress task was associated with subsequent changes in child psychopathology symptoms. To have a comprehensive understanding of the function of RSA reactivity, we tested whether RSA inertia interacted with between-task RSA reactivity to jointly predict changes in child psychopathology symptoms. Eighty-nine middle-to-high income Chinese parent-child dyads were recruited. Children ( = 8.77 years, = 1.80 years, 41 girls) participated in a 2-min and then a 4-min (a public speaking task), during which RSA was continuously recorded in the lab. Parents ( = 39.27 years, = 3.53 years, 67 mothers) reported on children's psychopathology symptoms in the lab and again 9 months later. Children with heightened RSA inertia tended to exhibit increased externalizing symptoms 9 months later. Moreover, RSA inertia interacted with between-task RSA reactivity to predict subsequent changes in externalizing symptoms. Children with the combination of lower RSA inertia and larger between-task RSA decreases had the lowest externalizing symptoms, suggesting an adaptive RSA reactivity pattern. Heightened within-task RSA inertia as well as reduced between-task RSA reactivity may help to identify children at risk for subsequent psychopathology symptoms, aiding in early intervention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
呼吸性窦性心律不齐（RSA）惯性是指连续时段之间RSA水平的暂时依赖性，它反映了RSA反应性在不同时段之间的粘性。以往研究任务间RSA反应性的发育功能时，结果不一，且常常忽视任务内的RSA反应性。本研究考察了应激任务期间的RSA惯性是否与儿童心理病理症状的后续变化有关。为全面理解RSA反应性的功能，我们测试了RSA惯性是否与任务间RSA反应性相互作用，共同预测儿童心理病理症状的变化。招募了89对中高收入的中国亲子二元组。儿童（平均年龄 = 8.77岁，标准差 = 1.80岁，41名女孩）先参与了一个2分钟的任务，然后是一个4分钟的任务（公开演讲任务），在此期间在实验室持续记录RSA。父母（平均年龄 = 39.27岁，标准差 = 3.53岁，67位母亲）在实验室报告了孩子的心理病理症状，9个月后再次报告。RSA惯性较高的儿童在9个月后往往表现出更多的外化症状。此外，RSA惯性与任务间RSA反应性相互作用，可预测外化症状的后续变化。RSA惯性较低且任务间RSA下降幅度较大的儿童外化症状最少，这表明存在一种适应性的RSA反应模式。任务内RSA惯性增强以及任务间RSA反应性降低可能有助于识别有后续心理病理症状风险的儿童，有助于早期干预。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
