Parental history of childhood maltreatment and child average RSA shape parent-child RSA synchrony

A context-dependent model of resilient functioning after childhood maltreatment-the case for flexible biobehavioral synchrony

Many children who experience childhood adversity, whether in the form of threat or deprivation, develop adaptive competencies that lead to resilient functioning. Still, research has not succeeded in accurately predicting the level of resilient functioning by any kind of biomarkers, likely because it has sidelined the flexibility inherent in a construct that is situationally and developmentally variable. Whilst recent research acknowledges the importance of redefining resilience in order to reflect its dynamic nature after adversity, evidence for specific behaviors that are developmentally adaptive and dynamic throughout the lifespan is limited. We here propose a model in which resilient functioning is crucially dependent on the individual's capability to flexibly synchronize with and segregate from another's cognitive-affective, behavioral, and physiological states, known as 'biobehavioral synchrony'. Such an adaptive interpersonal skill is rooted in (a) the early caregiving experience and its regulatory effects on an individual's physiological stress reactivity, as well as (b) the development of self-other distinction which can be affected by childhood maltreatment. Bridging the gap between accounts of flexible resilient functioning and the latest thinking in biobehavioral synchrony, we will review behavioral and neurobiological evidence that threat and deprivation in childhood interfere with the development of dynamic, context-sensitive boundaries between self and other, mediated by the (right) tempo-parietal junction (a central neural hub for interpersonal synchronization), which puts the individual at risk for affective fusion or cut-off from others' arousal states. Our proposed model charts a path for investigating the differential effects of maltreatment experiences and mechanisms for intergenerational transmission of non-sensitive caregiving. We conclude with metrics, data analysis methods, and strategies to facilitate flexible biobehavioral synchrony.

Understanding How Child Temperament, Negative Parenting, and Dyadic Parent-Child Behavioral Variability Interact to Influence Externalizing Problems

To better understand the development of externalizing behavior, the current study examines how multiple levels of influence (child temperament, negative parenting, and dyadic interactions) work together to increase externalizing behaviors over time. Negative parenting (NP) and observed dynamic dyadic behavioral variability (DBV) in parent-child interactions (e.g., in discipline and compliance) are characteristic of coercive family processes. The present study first examined latent profiles of temperament in 3-year-olds (N = 150). Four temperament profiles emerged: high reactive, exuberant, low reactive, and inhibited. Temperament profiles were then examined as moderators of the effects of age 3 NP and DBV on child externalizing problems at age 4. Exuberant temperament exacerbated the association between higher levels of NP and DBV and higher levels of child externalizing. Additionally, temperament moderated the combined effects of NP and DBV such that at low and mean levels of NP, children with exuberant temperaments who experienced higher DBV had higher externalizing behaviors, whereas at higher levels of NP, the influence of DBV was no longer significant. Results suggest pathways by which children's experiences of NP and DBV with parents contribute to their greater externalizing problems over time, in the context of the child's unique temperament profile.