Childhood Exposure to Aggressive Parenting and Trait Anxiety during Emerging Adulthood: Moderating Role of Autonomic Nervous System Activity

• Published in: Journal of family violence 2023-11, Vol.38 (8), p.1499-1508
• Main Authors: Chong, Li Shen, Senich, Kate L., Olezeski, Christy L., Rabkin, Ari N., Gordis, Elana B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggressiveness; Aggressiveness (Psychology); Anxiety; Autonomic nervous system; Cardiac arrhythmia; Central nervous system; Childhood; Clinical Psychology; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Environmental aspects; Galvanic skin response; Health aspects; Indexes; Law and Psychology; Life transitions; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Nervous system; Original Article; Parasympathetic nervous system; Parenting; Parents & parenting; Psychological aspects; Psychological functioning; Psychotherapy and Counseling; Quality of Life Research; Resting; Risk factors; Trait anxiety
• ISSN: 0885-7482; 1573-2851
• DOI: 10.1007/s10896-022-00460-z

Purpose Exposure to aggressive parenting is a well-established environmental risk factor for anxiety symptoms. Moreover, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, including activity in both parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems (PNS and SNS), may moderate the effects of aggressive parenting on anxiety. This study aims to examine the interactive effects of aggressive parenting and ANS activity (both PNS and SNS) in accounting for trait anxiety among emerging adults. Methods Participants ( n  = 190, mean age = 19.29, 56% females) reported retrospectively on childhood aggressive parenting and trait anxiety. In addition, we measured resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of PNS, and resting skin conductance level (SCL), an index of SNS. Results Regression analyses revealed that the three-way interaction between resting SCL, RSA, and aggressive parenting significantly accounted for trait anxiety. Simple slope analyses suggest that the relation between aggressive parenting and trait anxiety is stronger at lower conditional values of resting RSA and lower conditional values of resting SCL. Conclusion Coinhibition, or relatively low activity across both systems, may exacerbate the link between aggressive parenting and trait anxiety. This study highlights the importance of considering the interaction effects of multiple physiological systems and environmental context on later psychological functioning.