Modeling Profiles of Mothers' and Fathers' Mental Health and Stress Physiology and Physiological Coregulation with Preschool-Aged Children
Open Access
- Author:
- Skoranski, Amanda
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 04, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Erika Sell Lunkenheimer, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Erika Sell Lunkenheimer, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jenae Marie Neiderhiser, Committee Member
Ginger A Moore, Committee Member
Robert William Roeser, Outside Member
J. Douglas Coatsworth, Special Member
Alicia Ann Grandey, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- parenting
mental health
anxiety
depression
respiratory sinus arrhythmia
latent profile analysis - Abstract:
- Anxiety and depressive symptoms are the most commonly experienced mental health problems in the US. Symptoms of anxiety and depression have a biological basis in dysregulated physiological responding, particularly of the cardiac vagus, measured as respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), which is implicated in emotion regulation capabilities. Research has shown that anxiety and depressive symptoms can be transmitted from parent to child through dynamics of the parent-child relationship. Differences in parent-child coregulation, or the active coordination of physiological, emotional, and/or behavioral states between parent and child over time, may be one process through which emotional dysregulation and symptoms are transmitted. This dissertation project encompasses two studies that build on established research by examining interrelationships between parent mental health symptoms and physiological precursors, parent-child coregulation of physiology, and child behavioral and emotional adjustment. Study I examined person-centered profiles of mental health risk in parents using self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms as well as resting RSA and RSA stress response. These profiles are then used to predict children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment. We found that membership in a higher-risk mental health and physiological regulation profile for parents predicted greater behavioral and emotional problems for children. Study II examined whether parents’ profile membership impacted patterns of coregulation of RSA between parents and children. Results are discussed with regard to 1) The relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms and underlying physiological regulation in parents; 2) The relationship between poor RSA regulation and expressed mental health symptoms in parents, processes of coregulation with young children, and transmission of risk for emotional and behavioral problems; and 3) Differences between mothers’ and fathers’ experience of anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as differences in the relationship between mental health and physiological risk and interactions with young children.