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Parent Stress and Trauma, Autonomic Responses, and Negative Child Behaviors

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Abstract

Cumulative stress and trauma in parents may alter autonomic function. Both may negatively impact child behaviors, however these links have not been well established. We tested hypotheses that parent stress and trauma are associated with and interact with altered autonomic function during the toy wait task, an acute parent–child interaction challenge, to predict greater negative child behaviors. Sixty-eight parents and their 2–5 year old children were enrolled. More parent major and traumatic life events, and more parent recent life events coupled with increased heart rate and decreased heart rate variability (HRV), each related to more child disruptive/aggressive behavior. More major life and traumatic life events coupled with greater HRV predicted more child attention seeking behavior. Our novel approach to assessing parental life stress offers a unique perspective. Interventions mitigating parent stress and regulating physiological coping during parent–child interactions may both promote better parent health and improve child behavioral outcomes.

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Funding

Supported by R01-DK117651 and R21-AT007708.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale Stress Center, Yale University School of Medicine, 2 Church Street South, Suite 209, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA

    Nia Fogelman, Julie Schwartz & Rajita Sinha

  2. Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Tara M. Chaplin

  3. Department of Internal Medicine (Endocrinology) and Department of Pediatrics (Pediatric Endocrinology), Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Ania M. Jastreboff

  4. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Wendy K. Silverman

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  1. Nia Fogelman
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  2. Julie Schwartz
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  6. Rajita Sinha
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Correspondence to Rajita Sinha.

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Conflict of interest

A.M. Jastreboff is on the Scientific Advisory Board/Consultant for Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Intellihealth, Scholar Rock, Pfizer, and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. All other authors have no disclosures or conflicts of interest to report.

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Fogelman, N., Schwartz, J., Chaplin, T.M. et al. Parent Stress and Trauma, Autonomic Responses, and Negative Child Behaviors. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 54, 1779–1788 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01377-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01377-w

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