Parental socialization, vagal regulation, and preschoolers' anxious difficulties: direct mothers and moderated fathers.

Full Abstract

Parental supportiveness and protective overcontrol and preschoolers' parasympathetic regulation were examined as predictors of temperamental inhibition, social wariness, and internalizing problems. Lower baseline vagal tone and weaker vagal suppression were expected to mark poorer dispositional self-regulatory capacity, leaving children more susceptible to the influence of parental socialization. Less supportive mothers had preschoolers with more internalizing problems. One interaction between baseline vagal tone and maternal protective overcontrol, predicting social wariness, conformed to the moderation hypothesis. Conversely, vagal suppression moderated several links between paternal socialization and children's anxious difficulties in the expected pattern. There were more links between mothers' self-reported parenting and child outcomes than were noted for direct observations of maternal behavior, whereas the opposite tended to be true for fathers.

Author information

Author/s: Hastings, Paul D (PD); Sullivan, Caroline (C); McShane, Kelly E (KE); Coplan, Robert J (RJ); Utendale, William T (WT); Vyncke, Johanna D (JD);

Affiliation: Centre for Research in Human Development, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H4B 1R6. paul.hastings(-atsign-)concordia.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2008 Jan-Feb; vol 79 (issue 1) : pp 45-64

Dates: Created 2008/02/13; Completed 2008/05/16;

PMID: 18269508, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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