Abstract
This study tested biological sensitivity to context theory in the peer context. Respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA-R) and skin conductance level (SCL-R) reactivity to a peer stressor were collected for participants (N = 86; M age = 45.99 months old; 70.2% White) in the summer (Time 1). Children’s peer risk (i.e., physical and relational victimization) and protective (i.e., received prosocial behavior) factors were examined in the fall (T2) and relational and physical aggression were measured at T2 and in the spring (T3). Interactions were tested in regression analyses. Interactions emerged between relational victimization, RSA-R, and SCL-R in the prediction of T3 relational aggression and between received prosocial behavior, RSA-R, and SCL-R in the prediction of T3 relational and physical aggression, respectively. There was a positive relation between T2 relational victimization and T3 relational aggression for children with a coactivation pattern (i.e., increased RSA and SCL activity to a bullying stressor) but no relation for any other physiological pattern. Conversely, there was a negative relation between T2 received prosocial behavior and both forms of aggression at T3 for children with a reciprocal pattern (i.e., increased RSA and decreased SCL or decreased RSA and increased SCL activity) but no protective benefit of received prosocial behavior on subsequent aggression for children with a coactivation pattern. For children with a coinhibition pattern (i.e., decreased RSA and SCL activity), received prosocial behavior was negatively related to subsequent physical but not relational aggression. In sum, a coactivation pattern in response to stress may represent a vulnerability factor.
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Notes
The base and final interaction models were also run controlling for nesting within school. These analyses are included in the supplemental materials and mirrored the results in the main text, with the exception of the main effect of SCL-R on physical aggression at T3, which was no longer significant.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the PEERS project staff and the participating families, teachers, and schools for their contributions and support of this project. We would like to thank Dr. Sarah Blakely-McClure, Dr. Kimberly Kamper-DeMarco, Lauren Mutignani, Sarah Probst, Samantha Kesselring, and many research assistants in the UB Social Development Lab for data collection and coordination. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge Celeste Beauvilaire for reference checking. We would like to thank Drs. Craig Colder, Rina Eiden, and Lora Park for their feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. This manuscript served in part as a dissertation completed by the first author under the direction of the second author.
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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS-1450777) to the second and third authors and by the 2020 Donald Routh Dissertation Grant to the first author. Manuscript preparation was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship to the first author from the National Institute on Drug Abuse under award number T32DA017629-17.
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Perry, K.J., Ostrov, J.M. & Murray-Close, D. The Role of Autonomic System Coordination in Relations Between Peer Factors and Aggressive Behavior in Early Childhood. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 51, 693–708 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-01013-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-01013-0