Parental Socialization, Vagal Regulation, and PreschoolersÔÇÖ Anxious

Child Development, January/February 2008, Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 45 64
Parental Socialization, Vagal Regulation, and Preschoolers Anxious Difficulties: Direct Mothers and Moderated Fathers
Paul D. Hastings, Caroline Sullivan, and Kelly E. McShane
Concordia University
Robert J. Coplan
Carleton University
William T. Utendale
Concordia University
Johanna D. Vyncke
` Universite du Quebec a Montreal
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 childrens 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.
Internalizing problems are one of the most common kinds of early childhood difficulties (Zahn-Waxler, Klimes-Dougan, & Slattery, 2000), which frequently persist through childhood and into adolescence and adulthood (Majcher & Pollack, 1996). Internalizing problems often become evident or exacerbated in the transition from home care to day care or preschool, as children show fear of the novel setting, distress from parental separations, and withdrawal from peers (Hirshfeld-Becker & Biederman, 2002). Young childrens anxious reactions to early school settings can set them on adverse trajectories toward further personal, social, and academic difficulties (Coplan, Barber, & Lagace-Seguin, 1999). We examined the joint contributions of childrens parasympathetic regulation and experiences of parental socialization to their early emerging internalizing problems, social wariness, and temperamental inhibition. To address gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, we compared base-
line vagal tone and dynamic vagal suppression, mothers and fathers use of both adaptive and maladaptive parenting, and both parent-reported and observed measures of socialization techniques. Socialization and Anxious Development Parental overcontrol is a robust correlate of, and contributor to, childrens anxiety, dependence, and social withdrawal (Rapee, 1997; Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003). The nature of control appears to be key, as parents can assert their dominance through both behavioral and psychological controls (Barber, 2002; Barber & Harmon, 2002). Behavioral control encompasses rules- and consequences-based management efforts. Psychological control involves parents attempts to manipulate childrens emotions, intrude on childrens autonomous activity, or restrict the kinds of experiences children have. This limits childrens autonomy and fosters their dependence upon parents, putting children at risk for internalizing problems and anxious difficulties (Hudson & Rapee, 2001; Mills & Rubin, 1998; Park, Belsky, Putnam, & Crnic, 1997; Pettit, Laird, Dodge, Bates, & Criss, 2001; Rubin, Burgess, & Hastings, 2002).
Our thanks to the participating families and teachers; Lisa Serbin and Rosemary Mills for comments on earlier drafts; and Farriola Ladha, Ishani De, Samantha Goldwater-Adler, Maryse Guenette, and the students and staff of the ABCD Lab. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de la Recherche en Sante du Quebec, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and Concordia University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paul D. Hastings, Centre for Research in Human Development, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4B 1R6. Electronic mail may be sent to paul.hastings@concordia.ca.
# 2008 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2008/7901-0004
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Protective overcontrol is one aspect of psychological control that has often been linked with young childrens anxious difficulties (Rapee, 1997; Rubin, Hastings, Stewart, Henderson, & Chen 1997). This reflects intrusive actions that emphasize the closeness of the parent child bond, such as restricting the childs independent activities, very strong affection, and unnecessary micromanagement (Barber, 2002). According to a transactional bidirectional model of psychological control and anxious difficulties (e.g., Rapee, 1997; Rubin, Stewart, & Coplan, 1995), physiologically overreactive or temperamentally inhibited children display high levels of distress and neediness. This evokes parents emotions, including concern, anxiety, or guilt, which motivate parents to end childrens distress and prevent its recurrence. Thus, they use protective overcontrol to effusively comfort their children, limit exposure to unfamiliar or potentially challenging events, or dominate situations or activities that they perceive to be beyond their childrens capacities. In turn, this restricts childrens opportunities to practice and improve their selfregulation and active coping skills and communicates the message that they are incapable and require parental assistance to handle normal life tasks. Childrens development of autonomy and competence is thereby undermined, setting them upon a trajectory toward exacerbating internalizing problems. A small set of longitudinal investigations support these hypothesized parent effects. Rubin et al. (2002) found that reticence with peers was significantly stable from 2 to 4 years only for those children with mothers who had been oversolicitous (intrusive but highly warm). Bayer, Sanson, and Hemphill (2006) found that higher maternal protectiveness of toddlers predicted greater internalizing difficulties in preschoolers. Park et al. (1997) found that strong affection contributed to the stability of boys inhibition from 2 to 3 years. Thus, there is increasing evidence for parental psychological control contributing to the maintenance or exacerbation of childrens inhibition, wariness, and internalizing problems over development. Conversely, appropriate, positive, and effective parenting predicts fewer anxious difficulties. Parents who are more authoritative, supportive, or encouraging of autonomy have children who show fewer internalizing problems or less inhibition or social difficulty (Baumrind & Black, 1967; Chen et al., 1998; Shipman, Schneider, & Sims, 2005). Maternal sensitivity and engagement have been found to decrease the stability of early inhibition and anxiety (Bayer et al., 2006; Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2006; Early et al., 2002). However, few studies of preschoolers have included both psychological control and posi-
tive parenting or controlled for one in order to determine whether the other is uniquely associated with childrens adjustment. The Biological Basis of Internalizing Problems Temperamental inhibition in infancy and toddlerhood has also been linked with later internalizing problems (Kagan & Snidman, 1999; Prior, Smart, Sanson, & Oberklaid, 2000). Highly inhibited toddlers have low thresholds for arousal and difficulty adjusting to novelty, and they typically react to unfamiliar situations with distress and withdrawal (Kagan, 1997). Withdrawing may reduce the childrens distressed arousal, but this also reinforces a pattern of avoidant coping that supplants more effective social skills. Thus, there may be a developmental sequence linking inhibition, a dispositional tendency to react to unfamiliarity with fear, first to wariness, the avoidance of peers by withdrawing from social interactions, and then to internalizing problems, those more serious and maladaptive emotional and behavioral patterns that interfere with childrens abilities to accomplish developmentally normal activities (Rubin et al., 2002). One frequently studied psychophysiological correlate of inhibition, wariness, and internalizing problems in children is cardiac vagal tone, an index of parasympathetic regulation of heart rate variability attributable to the influence of the 10th cranial nerve (Porges, 1991). The parasympathetic system generally serves to downregulate or decrease cardiac activity. Individual differences in vagal tone are associated with the ability to adaptively calm oneself after a salient event has produced increased arousal (Porges & Doussard-Roosevelt, 1997). Over the preschool period, there are both maturational changes of the cardiac system and moderate stability in cardiac function. Baseline vagal tone increases with age, though individual differences remain similar (Fox & Field, 1989; Porges, Doussard-Roosevelt, Portales, & Suess, 1994). Baseline vagal tone (most often measured as respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) is useful for assessing individual differences in characteristic states of regulation or typical levels of arousal (Beauchaine, 2001; Calkins, 1997) and is associated with emotional reactivity (Stifter & Fox, 1990). According to the polyvagal theory (Porges, 1995), dynamic changes in vagal enervation (suppression) in response to task demands also should be associated with adaptive, active coping. Childrens withdrawal of parasympathetic influence over arousal in response to such mild to moderate challenges as solving a difficult puzzle reflects an adaptive allocation of energy
Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment
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and external focus of attention that should promote effective coping (Calkins & Keane, 2004). Thus, vagal suppression should upregulate or increase cardiac activity. Lower baseline vagal tone has been related to childrens anxious difficulties (El-Sheikh, Harger, & Whitson, 2001; Fox & Field, 1989; Garcia Coll, Kagan, & Reznick, 1984). Weaker vagal suppression also has been linked to childrens problems (Calkins, 1997; Calkins & Dedmon, 2000; El-Sheikh, 2001), and vagal suppression may be more strongly linked to emotional and behavioral adjustment than is baseline vagal tone (Blair, 2003; Calkins & Keane, 2004). These studies suggest that limited parasympathetic regulation of arousal undermines childrens abilities to cope with stress, contributing to a range of internalizing problems. However, many studies have failed to find relations between vagal tone and inhibition or internalizing problems (Calkins & Fox, 1992; Gerlach, Wilhelm, & Roth, 2003; Marshall & Stevenson-Hinde, 1998; Schmidt, Fox, Schulkin, & Gold, 1999; Stevenson-Hinde & Marshall, 1999). This may suggest that the links between vagal tone and anxious adjustment are not robust. Alternatively, decreased parasympathetic regulation may act as a vulnerability that puts children at risk for manifesting difficulties depending on other characteristics or experiences. Thus, psychological control may be particularly disadvantageous for children with low vagal tone. The Joint Contributions of Physiology and Socialization to Anxious Adjustment The contention that having lower vagal tone may increase a childs susceptibility to maladaptive socialization conforms to the tenets of the diathesis stress and transactional models that have become predominant in developmental psychopathology (Sameroff, 1975; Steinberg & Avenevoli, 2000). A small set of studies on vagal regulation and childrens socialization experiences within the family have begun to provide support for a model of the interactive contributions of physiological and experiential factors to internalizing problems. Scheeringa, Zeanah, Myers, and Putnam (2004) reported that preschoolers with elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms and low positive maternal discipline showed poor vagal regulation during recall of stressful experiences. El-Sheikh (2001; El-Sheikh & Harger, 2001; El-Sheikh & Whitson, 2006) reported that both lower baseline vagal tone and poorer vagal regulation to an emotional stressor moderated associations between parental difficulties and internaliz-
ing problems; parental alcoholism or marital conflict only predicted problems for less well-regulated children. Katz (Katz & Gottman, 1995, 1997) reported that marital problems predicted a range of problems for children with lower RSA and that vagal suppression (but not baseline vagal tone) moderated links between hostile coparenting (but not cohesive parenting) and social difficulties with peers (Leary & Katz, 2004). This work supports a biopsychosocial model of the development of anxious difficulties, in which poor parasympathetic regulation of arousal and adverse socialization experiences are jointly associated with greater maladjustment. However, several issues have not been adequately addressed in the existing literature. First, it is unclear whether low baseline vagal tone or weak vagal suppression most accurately reflects childrens physiological risk. Second, the relative contributions of protective overcontrol and supportive parenting to anxious adjustment need to be considered. Third, many previous studies have focused on parental psychopathology or family problems, rather than parental socialization styles or practices, such that results may not speak directly to the proposed roles of protective overcontrol and supportiveness. Fourth, most studies have included a single technique to assess parenting of preschoolers, either self-report or direct observation. Each has its own strengths but carries well-identified limits to validity when used alone (Janssens, De Bruyn, Manders, & Scholte, 2005; Miller, 1998). Using multiple methods to assess parenting could reveal convergent validity of predictive relations with child outcomes. Fifth, studies have tended to assess either childrens internalizing problems, or social wariness, or inhibition, and the biopsychosocial model may vary for these. As well, the ecological validity of some measures of adjustment may be questioned, as childrens social wariness has typically been measured in laboratory observations of wary and reticent behavior with unfamiliar peers. Although related to parent and teacher reports of child behavior problems (e.g., Coplan, 2000; Coplan, Rubin, Fox, Calkins, & Stewart, 1994), reticence with unfamiliar peers may not generalize to childrens play with familiar peers in known settings, such as day care. Sixth, and perhaps most important, little is known about relations between fathers socialization and childrens anxious difficulties. Studies of adolescents socialization have shown that fathers value promoting autonomy more than mothers (Kenny & Gallagher, 2002) and mothers use more psychological control than fathers (Barber, Bean, & Erickson, 2002), although this has not been seen with younger children
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(Nelson & Crick, 2002; Rubin, Nelson, Hastings, & Asendorpf, 1999). The limited research suggests that the links between fathers psychological control and childrens characteristics are similar to those seen with mothers (Park et al., 1997; Rogers, Buchanan, & Winchel, 2003). There is reason to propose, then, that fathers use of psychological control is also maladaptive for childrens development of anxious difficulties. Goals of the Current Investigation We tested a biopsychosocial model of childrens anxious difficulties. Vagal tone was used to measure parasympathetic regulation and was expected to moderate the associations between mothers and fathers parenting and childrens adjustment. Protective overcontrol was assessed as an aspect of psychological control that could be particularly maladaptive for vulnerable children, and supportive parenting was examined as a factor promoting more positive functioning. We looked at both normative aspects of childrens anxious difficulties, including social wariness and temperamental inhibition, and more clinically relevant internalizing problems. The study was designed to address the six identified limitations of the past literature. Four main hypotheses were tested. (a) Children were expected to manifest more inhibition, social wariness, and internalizing problems when their parents reported using more protective overcontrol and less supportive parenting and (b) when they showed lower baseline vagal tone and less vagal suppression to mild challenge. Parasympathetic regulation was expected to moderate parental socialization, such that (c) mothers and fathers high protective overcontrol and low supportive parenting were expected to predict anxious difficulties more strongly for children with lower vagal tone and less vagal suppression. (d) Weak vagal suppression was expected to be a better index of childrens physiological vulnerability, moderating the relations of parental socialization and child adjustment more consistently than baseline vagal tone.
Method Participants Recruitment strategy. Participants were recruited through advertisements placed in newspapers, posters in community centers and libraries, and letters distributed to day cares and preschools. In order to find children ranging in likelihood of manifesting
adjustment difficulty, some advertisements and posters were targeted toward parents of children with specific characteristics, for example, Is your child quiet and cautious? or Is your child upbeat and easy-going? Sample. The final sample included 133 families, with 72 girls and 61 boys, from 2.08 to 4.92 years old at recruitment (M 5 3.50, SD 5 0.76). A total of 87 children were enrolled in day care and 44 were in preschool (2 children were withdrawn from day care or preschool after the family enrolled in the study). To assess the effectiveness of the recruitment strategy, mothers were administered the items composing the internalizing problems scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for 1.5 5 years (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000) during the telephone screening (see measures below). Forty-two children were in the borderline clinical to clinical range for internalizing problems (T ! 60; M 5 65.93, SD 5 4.96, range 5 60 76), 48 were less than 1 SD above their gender- and age-normed average (51 T 59; M 5 54.77, SD 5 2.17), and 43 were at or below that average (T 50; M 5 42.95, SD 5 5.56, range 5 29 49). There were 113 two-parent families, including 3 separated couples who shared custody of the child and both parents participated, and 20 single-mother families. All mothers and 105 fathers participated. Mothers age ranged from 19.75 to 50.50 years (M 5 35.32, SD 5 5.10), and fathers age ranged from 23.58 to 56.92 years (M 5 37.66, SD 5 5.65). There were 98 Caucasian families, 21 families with mixed ethnicities, 7 Asian families, and 7 families with other ethnicities (Hispanic, Black, Middle Eastern, or other). The families were predominantly middle class. Twenty percent of mothers and 22% of fathers had a graduate degree, 42% of mothers and 30% of fathers had an undergraduate degree, 26% of mothers and 34% of fathers had some university education, 11% of mothers and fathers had completed high school, and 1 mother and 3 fathers had not finished high school. Annual household income before taxes ranged from under $20,000 to over $200,000 Canadian (M 5 $80,229.17, mode 5 $50,000, SD 5 $47,777.21). Teacher reports were completed by 1 male and 107 female teachers who worked in 97 establishments, with 1 to 4 participating children enrolled in each day care and preschool. Procedure Data for this study were collected during a visit to each familys home, a visit to each childs day care or preschool, and a visit to the laboratory by each family. Parents completed measures at home and in the
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laboratory. Teachers completed questionnaires that were returned by mail. An overview of the timeline for the components of the study is provided in Table 1. Temperamental inhibition. To assess childrens inhibition, mothers completed the Childrens Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001) and teachers completed the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Preschool Edition (SCBE; La Freniere & Dumas, 1995). The Fearful and Shy scales of the CBQ include 13 items each. For this sample of mothers, a 5 .76 and .94 for the Fearful and Shy scales, respectively. These scales were aggregated, r 5 .46, p , .001, to form an index of motherreported inhibition (n 5 112, M 5 3.54, SD 5 0.98). The Anxious and Isolated scales of the SCBE include 10 items each. For this sample of teachers, as 5 .78 and .82, respectively. These scales were aggregated,
Table 1 Overview and Timeline of Data Collection Procedures Months April to August Procedure Recruitment Measures Phone screening: Initial internalizing problems Reported parenting: CRPR Observed parenting: Parent child interactions co-constructed narratives origami teaching cleanup Baseline vagal tone: Video or story Task vagal tone: Challenging puzzle Social wariness: Familiar peer interactions Temperamental inhibition: SCBE Internalizing problems: CTRF Social wariness: Unfamiliar peer interactions Temperamental inhibition: CBQ (mother) Internalizing problems: CBCL (mother)
June to August
Home visit
October to December January to April
Preschool visit Teacher questionnaire
February to April
Laboratory visit
Note. CRPR 5 Child-Rearing Practices Report (Block, 1981); SCBE 5 Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (La Freniere & Dumas, 1995); CTRF 5 Caregiver Teacher Report Form (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000); CBQ 5 Childrens Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001); CBCL 5 Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000).
r 5 .65, p , .001, to form the index of teacher-reported inhibition (n 5 115, M 5 49.93, SD 5 8.69). Internalizing problems. To assess internalizing problems, mothers completed the full CBCL 1.5 5 years and teachers completed the Caregiver Teacher Report Form (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). The Internalizing Problems scale includes 36 items for parents and 32 items for teachers and has demonstrated good internal reliability and 1-week test retest reliability (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). In the current sample, the reliability coefficients a 5 .87 for mothers (n 5 116, M 5 50.17, SD 5 10.98) and a 5 .87 for teachers (n 5 114, M 5 51.39, SD 5 9.87). Reported parenting. To assess patterns of socialization, parents completed the Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR; Block, 1981). The CRPR uses a 91-item Q-Sort methodology to measure parenting attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The measure is well validated, with an 8-month test retest average correlation of r 5 .71 (Block, 1981) and has been used in previous studies of parental psychological control (Chen et al., 1998; Hastings & Rubin, 1999; Kennedy, Rubin, Hastings, & Maisel, 2004) and authoritative parenting (Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000; Kochanska, Kuczynski, & Radke-Yarrow, 1989). A total of 133 mothers and 105 fathers completed the CRPR during the home visit. Subscale scores were computed representing protective overcontrol (8 items: 13, 20, 44-R, 54, 68, 75-R, 79, and 80, e.g., I stop my child from playing rough games or doing things where he/she might get hurt) and supportive parenting (10 items: 1, 11, 18, 22, 34, 38, 40, 42, 51, and 52, e.g., I respect my childs opinions and encourage him/her to express them). For the latter, the original authoritative scale defined by Kochanska et al. (1989) was modified by removing four items with poor item whole correlations to maximize internal consistency. Coefficient alphas for protective overcontrol and supportive parenting for mothers were, respectively, as 5 .49 and .60, and descriptive statistics were, respectively, Ms 5 3.34 and 6.07, SDs 5 0.70 and 0.48. Coefficient alphas for fathers were, respectively, as 5 .43 and .62, and descriptive statistics were, respectively, Ms 5 3.29 and 5.96, SDs 5 0.69 and 0.54. Due to the forcedchoice ranking procedure of the Q-Sort methodology, CRPR scales often have low internal consistency scores (Hastings & Rubin, 1999) despite evidence for their convergent and predictive validity. Observed parenting. Each parent (in counterbalanced order for two-parent families) and child were videotaped at home completing a series of activities. Parental behaviors were observed in the final three activities. In co-constructed narratives, the parent and
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child used a set of figures and toy props to resolve two social situations involving peers. In origami teaching, the parent guided the child in how to fold paper into an origami shape. In cleanup, the parent and child tidied the interaction area. In two-parent homes, activities were adapted slightly (e.g., different social situations for the co-constructed narratives; different shapes for the origami teaching) so that children did not repeat identical tasks with each parent. In singlemother homes, either the first or the second set of activities was randomly assigned to the family. Mechanical error, experimenter error, and/or failure to attain child cooperation with the tasks resulted in the loss of all videotaped data for two mother child dyads (n 5 131) and three father child dyads (n 5 102). The co-constructed narratives were based on past research in which the MacArthur Story Stem Battery was administered to parents and children together (Oppenheim, Emde, & Wamboldt, 1996; Oppenheim, Nir, & Warren, 1997) but adapted to tap parental reactions to preschoolers coping with challenging peer interactions. The experimenter set up two scenarios for each parent child dyad, the first depicting the dyad arriving at a situation (preschool, birthday party) in which three other children were already playing and the second depicting the dyad meeting one unfamiliar peer and adult (playdate, park) and the target child acting shyly. After establishing the situation, the experimenter said You finish the story. Parent behaviors were observed from this point until the target childs first interaction with the other child(ren) or for a maximum of 5 min (mothers: M 5 1 min 51.33 s, SD 5 1 min 33.89 s; fathers: M 5 2 min 15.84 s, SD 5 1 min 44.64 s; paired t 5 2.30, p , .05). Two children with mothers and 2 children with fathers immediately (,10 s) moved their figurine into both social interactions without any behaviors by parents; these dyads were not included in the analyses. Coders used event sampling to record the frequency of 13 parent behaviors. Inter-rater agreement was computed for 20% of tapes that were examined by two coders using coefficient kappa, mean j 5 .86 (range 5 .61 1.00). Scores were proportionalized for total time observed. Six codes were seen as Protective or discouraging peer interaction (act as childs playmate, enact joining peer play with child, enact other adult interacting with child, support child interacting with other adult, support nonsocial play by child, and describe child as shy or reluctant). Five were seen as Encouraging of Engagement (familiarize child with setting, encourage child to interact, suggest how to initiate interaction, enact peer interacting with child, and ask child why s/he isnt interacting with peers).
Two were seen as Supportive (model greeting or interacting with others and provide reasons for child interacting). Descriptive statistics for these three sets of codes for mothers were, respectively, Ms 5 0.09, 0.30, and 0.19, SDs 5 0.12, 0.23, and 0.21, and for fathers were, respectively, Ms 5 0.08, 0.36, and 0.14, SDs 5 0.08, 0.22, and 0.18. For the origami task, parents were asked to follow pictorial instructions to teach their child how to fold a piece of paper into a shape but not to touch the paper themselves. Parent behaviors were coded until the shape was completed, the parent gave up the task, or 5 min passed (mothers: M 5 3 min 48.20 s, SD 5 1 min 23.88 s; fathers: M 5 3 min 50.70 s, SD 5 1 min 30.32 s; paired t 5 0.65). Coders completed time-sampled ratings of parents actions; for each 20-s time sample, coders rated each parent behavior from 1 (absent) to 5 (strong and repeated). Inter-rater agreement was computed for 25% of the tapes examined by two coders using coefficient alpha, mean a 5 .77 (range 5 0.67 0.93). Scores were proportionalized for total time observed. Codes used in the current analyses included Positive (warmth, affection, praising, and encouraging) and Supportive (point out steps, show illustrations, explain actions necessary, and provide reasons). Descriptive statistics for these for mothers were, respectively, Ms 5 1.46 and 1.94, SDs 5 0.31 and 0.45, and for fathers were, respectively, Ms 5 1.39 and 2.00, SDs 5 0.28 and 0.49. For the cleanup task, parents were asked to get their child to return all play materials to their original boxes. Parent behaviors were coded until the play materials were returned to their containers, the parent stated that they were finished (even if they were not), or 6 min passed (mothers: M 5 4 min 37.52 s, SD 5 1 min 06.05 s; fathers: M 5 4 min 37.81 s, SD 5 1 min 01.03 s; paired t 5 0.49). Using time sample coding, coders evaluated each parent behavior as Absent or Present in each 10-s time sample of the cleanup task. Inter-rater agreement was computed for 20% of tapes, mean j 5 .71 (range 5 .67 1.00). Scores were proportionalized for total time observed. Codes included Assist (help child put object into box), Take Over (put object away without childs assistance; accept childs noncompliance with task), Positive (praise, affection), and Encourage (gentle control through requests and reasoning). Descriptive statistics for these four sets of codes for mothers were, respectively, Ms 5 0.20, 0.08, 0.12, and 0.14, SDs 5 0.12, 0.09, 0.10, and 0.08, and for fathers were, respectively, Ms 5 0.23, 0.08, 0.12, and 0.16, SDs 5 0.13, 0.08, 0.11, and 0.08. Vagal tone. Each childs baseline cardiac activity was recorded using the Mini-Logger 2000 (MiniMitter, Inc., Bend, OR), a light-weight ambulatory
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monitor. Continuous interbeat interval (IBI) recording was obtained through a recording band that was connected to the childs chest using either two adhesive electrodes or an adhesive-free elasticized belt around the torso. IBIs were recorded between successive R-waves to the nearest millisecond. The recording band transmitted the data to the Mini-Logger 2000 unit, which the child wore in a fanny-pouch around his or her waist and which could store up to 2 hr of continuously recorded IBI data. Data were downloaded from the Mini-Logger 2000 unit using customized software, and then IBI files were transferred to Mxedit (Delta-Biometrics Inc., Bethesda, MD) for editing of recording artifacts and computation of cardiac RSA (equivalent to vagal tone or V; Porges, 1985). Baseline vagal tone (baseline V) recordings were obtained near the start of the home visit prior to initiating the parent child interaction tasks. Children were allowed to inspect the monitor and pretend to put it onto a stuffed animal until they felt comfortable enough to wear it themselves (5 children refused to wear the monitor). Baseline recording began approximately 5 min after attaching the monitor. To keep children still and calm during the baseline recordings, parents were asked to sit with their children and watch a low-action animated videotape (Dragon Tales) or read a childrens picture book (Curious George). These techniques have been found to be effective for keeping children stationary and arousing little affect (see Calkins & Dedmon, 2000; Rubin et al., 1997). The goal was to record at least 3 min of cardiac activity while the child was in a stationary and calm state (M 5 4 min 43.89 s, SD 5 1 min 2.52 s). Baseline V did not differ depending on the use of video or book, t , 1.0. Following the baseline, a portable video camera was set up to record parent child interactions. In two-parent homes, the order of observing child with mother versus father first was counterbalanced across families. Children were given a difficult puzzle to solve in order to record vagal tone (task V) under mild challenge conditions (Calkins & Keane, 2004). Children aged 2 3.5 years were given a puzzle recommended for children 4 years and older, and children aged 3.5 4.9 years were given a puzzle recommended for children 6 years and older. Parents were asked to give only as much help as they thought their child needed. For all children, cardiac recording during puzzle completion with the first parent was used to compute task V. Five more children removed the cardiac monitor between the baseline and the puzzle task procedure. The files of sequential IBIs were examined in Mxedit software (Delta-Biometrics Inc., Bethesda, MD) to visually identify artifacts and outliers pro-
duced by movement or recording error (e.g., two successive IBIs added together because the monitor failed to detect the intervening R-wave). Baseline data had to be discarded for 4 children because it was unusable (multiple consecutive recording errors throughout the baseline period), such that baseline data were available for 124 children. Three or more minutes of usable IBI data were obtained for 107 children; for the remaining 17 children, at least 60 s of error-free baseline data were available. Puzzle task data had to be discarded for 7 children because it was unusable. In total, puzzle task data were obtained from 112 children, all but 1 of whom also provided usable baseline data. Cardiac data throughout the puzzle task were usable for most children (M 5 4 min 21.31 s, SD 5 1 min 35.91 s), and all children provided at least 60 s of error-free puzzle task data. Mxedit uses a moving 21-point polynomial algorithm that isolates heart rate variability at the amplitude and period of the oscillations associated with breathing, reported in units of ln(ms)2. Age-specific frequency band-pass parameters are used to quantify RSA that corresponds to developmentally normative spontaneous respiration. The frequency band for RSA computation used for this preschool-age sample ranged from 0.24 to 1.04 Hz. RSA was computed for each sequential 20-s interval in each IBI data file, and the mean of these sequential values was used as the measure of RSA for each child. The durations of usable IBI data during baseline and puzzle task were not significantly correlated with V, rs 5 .15 and .01, respectively. Children showed a significant decrease in V from baseline (M 5 5.25, SD 5 1.35, range 5 2.20 9.46) to puzzle (M 5 4.05, SD 5 1.11, range 5 1.46 6.45), paired t(110) 5 13.45, p , .001. Vagal suppression (task V lower than baseline V) was shown by 90.1% (100/111) of the children. Although there has been debate about how best to measure and analyze change scores (e.g., Llabre, Spitzer, Saab, Ironson, & Schneiderman 1991; Wainer, 1991), residualized change scores have become widely used in recent studies of cardiovascular reactivity (e.g., Krantz et al., 1996; Nazzaro et al., 2005), and they are recognized as particularly appropriate when there is significant and positive relation between baseline and episode measures (Calkins & Keane, 2004, p. 107). Baseline V and task V were significantly positively correlated, r 5 .71, p , .001; therefore, the standardized residual of the prediction of task V from baseline V was used as the index of change in vagal tone (DV) under mild cognitive challenge conditions. DV corresponds to the inverse of vagal suppression, as higher values of DV reflect increases (or smaller decreases) in V from baseline to
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puzzle task. DV did not differ between children who completed the puzzle with mother or with father, t(109) 5 1.47. Observations of social wariness. Social wariness was observed in two contexts. First, 122 children were visited at their day care or preschool on a day that began with a free-play period. Each childs play with his or her familiar preschool peers was observed for 12 min, beginning 2 5 min after the child had entered the playroom and separated from the parent. Second, triads of same-sex, same-age unfamiliar children were invited to the laboratory for a visit. Arrival times of families were staggered, and each family was greeted by an examiner and taken to a separate waiting room so that children would not see each other prior to entering the laboratory playroom. The 20 ft 20 ft playroom contained a variety of age-appropriate toys that were conducive for either individual or social play. The first activity was a 10min free-play period; this was videotaped for 112 children from three corner-mounted cameras. Childrens displays of wariness during play sessions with familiar peers at preschool and unfamiliar peers in the laboratory were made using the Play Observation Scale (POS; Rubin, 1989). In both contexts, play behavior was coded in 10-s time samples. Live observations were done in the preschool visits, and laboratory visits were coded from videotape. Coders had to attain j ! .70 for POS coding of 60 min of videotaped play and at least two 1-hr live preschool visits before being the primary coder on a preschool visit for a participant. Repeated reliability coding of videotaped laboratory interactions ensured that all coders maintained j ! .70. Social wariness in each context was defined as the proportion of observed 10-s time segments spent as onlooker/ unoccupied: watching others play without trying to join, not playing on ones own, inactivity or lack of focus, and isolation. For observed wariness at preschool, M 5 .17, SD 5 0.16 (range 5 0.00 0.81), and for observed wariness in the laboratory, M 5 0.23, SD 5 0.26 (range 5 0.00 1.00), paired t 5 1.33.
utions were supported for both mothers and fathers, with eigenvalues 5 1.20 and 1.41, respectively, and all factor loadings !.48). Supportive parenting included the Supportive score from narratives, Positive and Supportive scores from origami, and Positive and Encouraging scores from cleanup; scores were ztransformed and averaged (single-factor solutions were supported for both mothers and fathers, with eigenvalues 5 1.53 and 1.72, respectively, and all factor loadings ! .30). Observed parenting scores were computed for 131 mothers and 102 fathers. Temperamental inhibition. Mothers and teachers reports of inhibition were significantly correlated, r 5 .26, p , .01. Thus, their reports were first ztransformed and then averaged (n 5 128). When only one report was available, this was used as the index. Internalizing problems. The correlation between mothers and teachers reports of childrens internalizing problems approached significance, r 5 .17, p , .10, comparable to the correspondence between separate CBCL reports on young childrens internalizing problems seen in prior studies (e.g., Hay et al., 1999). Mothers and teachers reports of internalizing problems were averaged (n 5 127), M 5 50.72, SD 5 8.72 (range 5 33 72). When only one report was available, this was used as the index. Observed social wariness. Preschoolers onlooker/ unoccupied behaviors with familiar peers at preschool and unfamiliar peers in the laboratory were significantly correlated, r 5 .22, p , .05. Therefore, onlooker/unoccupied behaviors at preschool and in the laboratory were averaged to form the index of observed social wariness (n 5 128), M 5 0.20, SD 5 0.18 (range 5 0.00 1.00). Wariness was based on behavior in only one context when observations in both contexts were not available. Relations Between Predictors and Outcomes The first-order correlations between baseline V, task V, DV, maternal and paternal reported and observed parenting, and the three measures of childrens anxious difficulties are presented in Table 2. There were no significant correlations involving the measures of vagal tone. The corresponding indices of mothers observed and reported protective overcontrol, and of fathers supportiveness, were positively correlated, indicative of moderate convergence across measures. Two of the four corresponding maternal and paternal parenting scores were positively correlated, indicative of moderate consistency in childrens socialization experiences across parents in two-parent homes. Children with more internalizing problems had mothers who were more protective (reported)
Results Preliminary Analyses: Data Reduction Observed parenting. Observed parenting behavior across tasks was aggregated to form scores for observed protective overcontrol and supportiveness. Protective overcontrol included Protect and Encourage Engagement (reversed) scores from narratives and Assist and Take Over scores from cleanup. Scores were z-transformed and averaged (single-factor sol-

Table 2 Intercorrelations of Predictor and Outcome Variables Variable Child Physiology 1. Baseline V 2. Task V 3. DV Mothers Parenting 4. Reported protective 5. Reported supportive 6. Observed protective 7. Observed supportive Fathers Parenting 8. Reported protective 9. Reported supportive 10. Observed protective 11. Observed supportive Child Outcomes 12. Internalizing problems 13. Inhibited temperament 14. Social wariness 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
53
.07 .01 .08
.04 .01 .04 .27**
.11 .07 .01 .28** .11
.01 .01 .01 .13 .17y .04
.02 .01 .02 .23* .10 .14 .15
.17y .13 .04 .05 .10 .07 .07 .14
.03 .05 .02 .01 .06 .11 .09 .08 .20*
.03 .00 .01 .14 .15 .10 .24* .02 .24* .11
.03 .03 .03 .25** .34*** .07 .19* .20* .07 .03 .12
.09 .09 .04 .20* .05 .09 .09 .19y .08 .03 .13 .45***
.04 .08 .08 .09 .10 .00 .05 .05 .06 .13 .13 .05 .33***
Note. Reported parenting is from Child-Rearing Practices Report (Block, 1981); observed parenting is from home visits. y p , .10. *p , .05. **p , .01. ***p , .001.
and less supportive (observed and reported). Fathers and mothers reported protective overcontrol was also positively correlated with internalizing problems and temperamental inhibition, respectively. More inhibited children had more internalizing problems and showed more social wariness, although the latter two were not significantly correlated. Regression Analyses Check for control variables. Six potentially confounding variables were examined to determine if they were associated with the variables of interest in this study: sex and age of child, family structure (number of parents), order of observing parent child interactions, type of school, and availability of teacher reports. Four of these were associated with the variables of interest. (a) Girls internalizing problems scores (M 5 52.25, SD 5 8.92) were higher than those of boys (M 5 48.67, SD 5 8.75), t(104) 5 2.08, p , .05. (b) Older children had higher baseline V, r(109) 5 .27, p , .01. (c) Mothers in two-parent homes reported more supportive parenting than single mothers (Ms 5 6.14, 5.74; SDs 5 0.42, 0.67, respectively), t(109) 5 3.27, p , .01. (d) Compared to families for which teacher reports were returned, in families lacking teacher reports mothers were less supportive on reported (Ms 5 6.12, 5.72; SDs 5 0.42, 0.75, respectively), t(109) 5 2.87, p , .01, and observed measures (Ms 5 0.12,
0.54; SDs 5 0.96, 0.96, respectively), t(107) 5 2.34, p , .05. The same difference in fathers reported supportiveness was seen (Ms 5 6.01, 5.50; SDs 5 0.53, 0.71, respectively), t(83) 5 2.22, p , .05. Children lacking teacher reports also had more internalizing problems (Ms 5 56.89, 49.93; SDs 5 11.01, 8.60, respectively), t(104) 5 2.27, p , .05. Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine whether any of these six variables needed to be controlled in the predictive regressions. Age, family structure, observation order, and type of school did not affect the strength of the regressions. Sex and availability of teacher reports predicted childrens internalizing problems (across analyses, maximum bs 5 .20 and .22, respectively, p , .05), and including them influenced whether some associations between targeted predictors and outcomes reached traditional levels of significance. Therefore, sex of child and availability of teacher reports were entered as control variables in all analyses. Preliminary regression analyses were also performed to determine whether sex and age of child moderated the relations between V, DV, maternal and paternal parenting, as predictors, and anxious difficulties, as outcomes. None of the two-way interaction terms involving sex significantly predicted child outcomes. Only 1 of 18 interactions (5.6%) involving age was significant at p , .05, attributable to chance. Therefore, sex and age of child did not appear to
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influence the relations of principal interest in this investigation. General format for regression analyses. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to predict internalizing problems, temperamental inhibition, and social wariness from baseline V and DV and mothers and fathers reported and observed parenting. With two indices of vagal regulation and two methods of assessing parenting used to predict three outcomes, there were 12 regressions examined for fathers and 12 for mothers. For each regression, the control variables of child sex and availability of teacher reports were entered first, DV (or V) and the measures of protective overcontrol and supportive parenting were entered on the second step, and the two interactions of DV (or V) Parenting were entered third. As recommended by Aiken and West (1991), predictor variables were centered prior to computing interaction terms, and centered variables were entered into the regression analyses. Significant (p , .05) interaction terms were examined by regressing the dependent variable on the parenting score at low (1 SD) and high (+1 SD) values of DV (or V) in order to clarify how childrens DV (or V) moderated the association between parenting and the index of anxious adjustment. Predictions from paternal parenting and DV. The regression analyses involving paternal parenting and vagal suppression are presented in Table 3. Two of the six interactions were significant, and two more approached significance. There were no significant direct effects, but fathers who were observed to be more supportive had children who tended (.08 , p , .11) to show less of all three anxious difficulties. Five of the 12 interactions (42%) involving DV and fathers parenting were significant; two illustrative effects are depicted in Figure 1. All the significant interaction effects were consistent with the hypothesis that protective overcontrol would predict more anxious difficulties and supportive parenting would predict fewer anxious difficulties, specifically for children with less parasympathetic self-regulation as indexed by weaker vagal suppression. From the measures of reported parenting, DV Protective Overcontrol predicted childrens inhibition (Figure 1a) and DV Supportive predicted their wariness. More protective parenting predicted more inhibition when vagal suppression was weaker (b 5 .40, p , .02) but not when vagal suppression was stronger (b 5 .07, ns). More supportive parenting was associated with less wariness when vagal suppression was weaker (b 5 .30, p , .20) but not when vagal suppression was stronger (b 5 .13). For the analyses with observed parenting, DV Supportive predicted both internalizing problems (Figure 1b) and inhibition and DV
Protective predicted wariness. When vagal suppression was weaker, more supportive parenting by fathers predicted fewer internalizing problems (b 5 .41, p , .01) and less inhibition (b 5 .39, p , .01) and more protective parenting was weakly associated with more wariness (b 5 .25, p , .20). With stronger vagal suppression, supportive parenting did not predict either internalizing problems or inhibition (bs 5 .08 and .04, respectively) and protective parenting predicted less wariness (b 5 .40, p , .01). Predictions from maternal parenting and DV. The regression analyses involving maternal parenting and vagal suppression are presented in Table 4. Three of the six regressions were significant. Children with more internalizing problems had mothers who reported significantly less supportive parenting and who tended to report more protective overcontrol. Mothers observed supportive parenting predicted fewer internalizing problems. In the prediction of wariness from reported parenting, the DV Protective interaction was significant and the DV Supportive interaction approached significance. Examining the significant interaction, the moderation effect was counter to the hypothesis (Figure 2): More protective parenting predicted more wariness when vagal suppression was stronger (b 5 .38, p , .01) but not when vagal suppression was weaker (b 5 .27, p , .10). Predictions from paternal parenting and baseline V. Of the six regression analyses involving paternal parenting and baseline V, only the prediction of social wariness from observed parenting was significant, adjusted R2 5 .116, F(7, 83) 5 2.70, p , .05. (In the interests of conserving space, the predominantly nonsignificant regression analyses involving baseline V are not presented in tables. Readers interested in the detailed results of these analyses may contact the first author for copies.) Social wariness was significantly predicted by Baseline V Observed Protective (b 5 .25, p , .05); this was the only 1 of the 12 tested interaction effects that was significant. Protective overcontrol did not predict wariness at higher levels of baseline V (b 5 .10, ns), but counter to the hypothesis, protective predicted less wariness at lower levels of baseline V (b 5 .38, p , .01). There were no significant direct effects in any analyses, but the children of fathers who reported more protective overcontrol tended to have more internalizing problems and greater inhibition (both p , .10). Predictions from maternal parenting and baseline V. Of the six regression analyses involving maternal parenting and baseline V, only the prediction of internalizing problems from reported parenting was significant, adjusted R2 5 .161, F(7, 110) 5 4.21, p , .001.
Table 3 Prediction of Internalizing Problems (IP), Temperamental Inhibition (TI), and Social Wariness (SW) From DV and Fathers Reported and Observed Parenting IP DR2 B p Mult R B p Mult R DR2 TI DR2 SW B p
Mult R
.347 .05 .16 .12 .02 .14 .12 .001
.051
.303
.038
.151
.014
.04 .11 .00
.348
.02 .04 Adjusted R2 5 .039, F(7, 75) 5 1.48, ns .036 .314 .049
ns ns ns ns ns ns ns
ns ns ns ns .409 .075 .039 .32 .012 .09 ns Adjusted R2 5 .089, F(7, 75) 5 2.15, p , .05
ns ns ns ns .296 .065 .079 .18 ns .32 .029 Adjusted R2 5 .001, F(7, 74) 5 1.01, ns .298 .063
.320
Reported Parenting Step 2 DV F Protective F Supportive Step 3 DV F Protective DV F Supportive Model summary Observed Parenting Step 2 DV F Protective F Supportive Step 3 DV F Protective DV F Supportive Model Summary .05 .01 .18 ns ns ns .105 .408 .068 .056 .13 ns .25 .028 Adjusted R2 5 .087, F(7, 73) 5 2.09, p , .06 .04 .10 .18
ns ns ns .103 .406 .063 .071 .00 ns .26 .022 Adjusted R2 5 .085, F(7, 73) 5 2.06, p , .06
ns ns ns .089 .418 .086 .028 .31 .010 .11 ns Adjusted R2 5 .094, F(7, 72) 5 2.17, p , .05 .06 .13 .19
Note. Sex of child and availability of teacher report were entered in Step 1 of all analyses. F5 father.
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Hastings et al.
(a)
0.25 0.125 0
(b)
55 54
Internalizing Problems
53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45
Inhibition
-0.125 -0.25 -0.375 -0.5 Low Protective High Protective
Low Supportive
High Supportive
Fathers' Parenting
Less Vagal Suppression More Vagal Suppression
Fathers' Parenting
Less Vagal Suppression More Vagal Suppression
Figure 1. (a) Childrens vagal suppression moderates the relation between fathers reported protective overcontrol and childrens temperamental inhibition. (b) Childrens vagal suppression moderates the relation between fathers observed supportive parenting and childrens internalizing problems.
The same direct effects of maternal parenting for childrens internalizing problems noted previously were evident in these analyses. Only 1 of the 12 tested interaction effects was significant. The Baseline V Reported Protective Overcontrol interaction significantly predicted social wariness (b 5 .29, p , .01). Examining the significant interaction (Figure 3), and in accord with the hypothesis, maternal protectiveness predicted more wariness at lower levels of baseline V (b 5 .26, p , .05) but tended to predict less wariness at higher levels of baseline V (b 5 .20, p , .10). Summary. Overall, compared to baseline V, vagal suppression appeared to be a more consistent indicator of child vulnerability and susceptibility to socialization and specifically to fathers parenting. All five significant associations between paternal socialization measures and childrens anxious difficulties that were moderated by vagal suppression matched the vulnerability hypothesis. Conversely, mothers supportive parenting was directly associated with internalizing problems, there were only two moderated effects of maternal parenting, and baseline V was the moderator of associations between protective overcontrol and social wariness that matched the hypothesis. Finally, the patterns of predictive relations were fairly consistent across reported and observed parenting, although few direct comparisons matched. Do maternal and paternal parenting jointly predict childrens anxious difficulties? The predictions of internalizing problems from DV and observed parenting
included significant effects for mothers and fathers, as did the predictions of social wariness from DV and reported parenting. To determine whether fathers and mothers made significant unique contributions to childrens anxious difficulties, two additional analyses were conducted. (a) In a prediction of internalizing problems from DV and observed parenting, the control variables were entered on Step 1, DV and maternal and paternal supportive were entered on Step 2, and the DV Paternal Supportive interaction was entered on Step 3. The analysis was significant, adjusted R2 5 .155, F(6, 72) 5 3.39, p , .01, and both the direct effect of maternal supportive (b 5 .24, p , .05) and DV Paternal Supportive interaction (b 5 .28, p , .05) were significant. (b) A similarly structured regression predicting social wariness from DV and reported parenting included DV, maternal protective, and paternal supportive on Step 2 and DV Paternal Supportive and DV Maternal Protective interaction terms on Step 3. The overall model was not significant, but Step 3 was significant, DR2 5 .079, F(2, 72) 5 3.20, p , .05. Both the paternal and the maternal interaction terms approached significance (bs 5 .25 and .21, respectively, p , .10).
Discussion In this investigation, we obtained support for a biopsychosocial model of the contributions of fathers socialization to the anxious difficulties of physiologically
Table 4 Prediction of Internalizing Problems (IP), Temperamental Inhibition (TI), and Social Wariness (SW) From DV and Mothers Reported and Observed Parenting IP DR2 B p Mult R B p Mult R DR2 TI DR2 SW B p
Mult R
.474 .06 .16 .04
.139
.210
.033
.242
.023
.001 ns .076 .002 .486 .012 ns .01 ns .11 ns Adjusted R2 5 .182, F(7, 98) 5 4.34, p , .001 .00 .17 .31 .058 .163 .015
ns ns ns ns .216 .003 ns .05 ns .03 ns Adjusted R2 5 .000, F(7, 98) 5 0.69, ns
ns ns ns ns .430 .127 .001 .28 .005 .18 .061 Adjusted R2 5 .126, F(7, 96) 5 3.12, p , .01 .10 .05 .11 .211 .01 .08 .10 .009
.372
Reported Parenting Step 2 DV M Protective M Supportive Step 3 DV M Protective DV M Supportive Model summary Observed Parenting Step 2 DV M Protective M Supportive Step 3 DV M Protective DV M Supportive Model Summary .08 .11 .22 ns ns ns ns .213 .019 ns .03 ns .14 ns Adjusted R2 5 .000, F(7, 97) 5 0.66, ns
.091 ns ns .027 .384 .009 ns .06 ns .07 ns Adjusted R2 5 .085, F(7, 96) 5 2.37, p , .05
ns ns ns ns .285 .037 ns .12 ns .17 .106 Adjusted R2 5 .014, F(7, 96) 5 1.21, ns .09 .03 .01
Note. Sex of child and availability of teacher report were entered in Step 1 of all analyses. M 5 mother.
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Hastings et al.
0.3
Less Vagal Suppression

0.25
More Vagal Suppression
0.2
0.15
0.1
Low Protective High Protective
Mothers' Parenting
Figure 2. Childrens vagal suppression moderates the relation between mothers reported protective overcontrol and childrens socially wary behaviors with peers.
vulnerable children. Assessing parasympathetic regulation as a dynamic process within appropriately challenging contexts appeared to be most revealing of its developmental role, as childrens adaptive vagal suppression to a mild cognitive challenge was a more consistent moderator of paternal socialization than was their baseline vagal tone. Conversely, all children appeared to benefit from mothers supportive parenting, and the evidence for maternal protective overcontrol predicting social wariness most strongly in children with poor parasympathetic self-regulation was mixed. There were more associations between childrens anxious difficulties and their receipt of support than their experiences of protective overcontrol, although for both aspects of parenting, relations were predominantly in accord with the
0.25 Lower Baseline Vagal Tone 0.2 Wariness Higher Baseline Vagal Tone
0.15
0.1
Low Protective
High Protective
Mothers' Parenting
Figure 3. Childrens baseline vagal tone moderates the relation between mothers reported protective overcontrol and childrens socially wary behaviors with peers.
socialization hypotheses. As well, there were more associations for reported than observed measures of mothers parenting, whereas the converse tended to be true for fathers parenting, but when mothers and fathers parenting were considered simultaneously, both mothers and fathers in two-parent families contributed to their childrens anxious difficulties. The results for paternal socialization were particularly noteworthy, as only fathers parenting predicted childrens inhibition, and fathers supportiveness contributed to the predictions of childrens internalizing problems and anxious difficulties independent of maternal socialization. The principal goal of this investigation was to examine a possible mechanism by which children manifest adaptive versus maladaptive social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment. Physiological vulnerability, as indexed by less vagal suppression under conditions requiring attention and active coping (Beauchaine, 2001; Calkins & Keane, 2004; Porges, 1995), was expected to demarcate children who were relatively lacking in internal self-regulatory resources. These children were expected to be more dependent upon external sources of regulation through parental socialization, such that they would both experience more benefit from supportive parenting but also be more susceptible to the adverse influences of parents psychological control. Intriguingly, support for these hypothesized moderation effects was evident only for fathers parenting. Our results indicated that, on their own, baseline vagal tone and vagal suppression were not strongly associated with childrens anxious difficulties, mirroring the literatures generally weak associations between vagal tone and childrens inhibition, wariness, and internalizing problems (e.g., Rubin et al., 1997; Schmidt et al., 1999). The moderating functions of vagal suppression on the relations between paternal socialization and adjustment were more salient, and there was also evidence of vagal tone moderating the relations between maternal protective overcontrol and adjustment. This may shed light on the apparent inconsistency of the links between vagal tone and childrens adjustment (e.g., El-Sheikh et al., 2001; Schmidt et al., 1999). Parasympathetic regulation does not function in isolation, and physiological vulnerability is not tantamount to biological determinism. Whether a vulnerable child develops problems, and the nature and severity of those problems, depends on the childs socialization experiences. Examining low vagal suppression as a physiological risk factor thereby extended the findings of previous studies that have used behavioral inhibition as a marker of dispositional vulnerability (Rubin et al.,
Wariness
59
1999, 2002). Children with lower vagal suppression to the puzzle task were described as having more internalizing problems and being more inhibited by their mothers and teachers, and they displayed more social wariness with peers, when their fathers were more protective and less supportive. Conversely, the adjustment of children with greater vagal suppression was relatively independent of paternal socialization, and there was a notable lack of robust direct relations between fathers parenting and childrens adjustment. Thus, we have provided some of the first evidence of biopsychosocial processes involving fathers socialization of young children. Overprotective fathers may perceive their less well-regulated children as incapable of autonomous activity or in need of extra assistance, causing them to be intrusive, overbearing, and restricting of the childrens experiences. This could suggest to children that they are incapable or that the world is unsafe, such that they require parental assistance (Mills & Rubin, 1998). Conversely, more supportive fathers may structure interactions or organize situations in ways that their vulnerable children find manageable, such that they have opportunities to practice autonomous coping and experience positive results, building their self-confidence and reducing their likelihood of developing anxious adjustment difficulties. It was also intriguing that there were more associations of paternal parenting with childrens inhibition and wariness than with their internalizing problems. Whereas inhibition and wariness may be conceptualized as normative aspects of social behavior that all young children manifest to greater or lesser degrees, high levels of internalizing problems are more clearly indicative of atypical and clinical maladjustment. It has often been argued that positive paternal socialization is particularly important for childrens development of social competence within peer relationships (Parke, 1995; Pettit, Brown, Mize, & Lindsey, 1998). The current results may be seen as convergent with this view, as physiologically vulnerable childrens shyness and withdrawal from social engagement were lower if their fathers were more supportive and less overprotective. The only inconsistencies in the current results concerned the role of childrens vagal regulation in the relations between social wariness with peers and parental protective overcontrol. Vagal suppression moderated fathers observed protective in accord with the vulnerability hypothesis, but fathers observed protective predicted less wariness in children with low baseline vagal tone. In direct contrast, mothers reported protective predicted greater wariness both in children with low baseline vagal tone and
in children with stronger vagal suppression. Considered another way, these results showed that low baseline vagal tone characterized children vulnerable to the protective overcontrol of mothers but not that of fathers, whereas weak vagal suppression demarcated children susceptible to the protective overcontrol of fathers but not that of mothers. Resting and reactive measures of physiological regulation, therefore, may demarcate different qualities of vulnerability. Baseline vagal tone is conceptualized as more reflective of a childs typical or trait-like level of arousal (Beauchaine, 2001), akin to temperament, and vagal suppression as a more dynamic and state-like indicator of adaptive allocation of resources under demanding conditions (Porges, 1995). Despite generational changes in family roles and great variability across families, it is still the case that mothers have greater responsibility for child care, are involved in a greater range of activities, and share more time with their young children than do fathers (Coltrane, 2000; Wood & Repetti, 2004); fathers interactions are more limited in context, activity, and time. Thus, children may experience maternal parenting as amalgamations of diverse kinds of contact throughout day-today routines and across their typical range of arousal states. Paternal parenting may be experienced as more in the moment or situation specific when children are in more activated states. Correspondingly, it is plausible that childrens trait-like self-regulatory capacity would moderate mothers socialization efforts, whereas their state-like reactivity would moderate socialization by fathers. Of course, this is a highly speculative post hoc explanation for a small set of related results and only one of the several possible interpretations of these data. It will require replication and rigorous evaluation in future studies to clarify the meanings of these relations. The more consistent pattern for maternal socialization was that, overall, it was similarly important for children with both weaker and stronger self-regulatory capacities. The strongest finding for mothers parenting was that internalizing problems were most severe in those children who had less supportive mothers. Mothers who described themselves as more supportive also reported being less protective, and the significant first-order correlation between internalizing problems and maternal protective overcontrol was weakened when maternal supportiveness was controlled. Thus, it was chiefly young childrens experiences with mothers who were appropriately warm, more encouraging, and more prone to the use of teaching and gentle control that were associated with their displays of fewer internalizing problems months later, echoing the results of one recent report
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Hastings et al.
that examined both supportive parenting and psychological control (Bayer et al., 2006). The report by Bayer et al. (2006) is rather exceptional, as few researchers have assessed both adaptive or appropriate parenting and maladaptive or inappropriate parenting within the same investigation. In particular, most past studies of the relations between parental protective overcontrol and young childrens problems have not also considered the possible role of positive parenting. The inverse relation between maternal supportive and overprotective parenting raises the possibility that the often replicated links between psychological control and anxious adjustment (e.g., Hudson & Rapee, 2001; Mills & Rubin, 1998) may be attributable to young childrens simultaneous experiences of less supportive parenting. The importance of appropriate maternal warmth, nurturance, and support for autonomy may be particularly important for the developmental period targeted in this study (Early et al., 2002). Such parenting would contribute to a young childs felt security and development of an attachment relationship, promoting exploration and a childs developing competence (Bretherton, Golby, & Cho, 1997). Lacking the benefits conferred by such positive maternal socialization experiences may leave all toddlers and preschoolers vulnerable to the kinds of anxious difficulties that characterize early emerging internalizing problems (Zahn-Waxler et al., 2000). It is also possible that the adverse effects of maternal psychological control become more pronounced or directly associated with adjustment beyond the preschool years (Barber, 2002). This investigation documented a number of additional findings worthy of attention. To begin, we provided moderate support for the utility and validity of the CRPR as a measure of socialization by showing that mothers reported protective overcontrol and fathers reported supportive parenting were significantly associated with direct observations of corresponding parenting behavior during interactions with children. Although low in magnitude, the correspondences between observed and reported parenting were comparable or better than those reported in other recent studies (e.g., Bayer et al., 2006; Janssens et al., 2005). The similarity in the relations of both observed and reported parenting with childrens anxious difficulties also provided multimethod evidence of convergent validity for these socialization influences. In addition, we demonstrated correspondence between preschoolers wary behaviors with familiar peers in the natural settings of day cares and preschools and with unfamiliar peers in the novel setting of a laboratory playroom. To our knowledge, this is
the first direct demonstration of the ecological validity of the unfamiliar peer procedure that has been widely used to assess inhibition and reticence (e.g., Kochanska & Radke-Yarrow, 1992; Rubin et al., 1997, 2002). Although the correlation across contexts was significant, it was of small magnitude, suggesting that there were a number of children with discordant displays of wariness across social contexts. Attention to the factors contributing to behavioral rigidity or flexibility appears warranted. It was also intriguing to note that reported child inhibition was associated with both observed wariness and reported internalizing problems, although the latter two were not significantly correlated. This might suggest that temperamental inhibition is a common element of both normative shy behaviors and clinical anxiety problems (Prior et al., 2000). However, direct brief observations of childrens social behaviors with peers may not be effective means of identifying which children are likely to have serious and persistent problems. Finally, although the rather low correspondence between mothers and teachers reports of preschoolers internalizing problems is in accord with past research (Hay et al., 1999), it suggests that parents are not the most accurate reporters of their young childrens risk for maladjustment within early educational settings. Most mothers have limited opportunity to observe their preschool-age children in large-group social settings with peers, which may leave them somewhat unaware of their childrens levels of social comfort or difficulties at day care or preschool. Still, this has implications for the identification of risk for school maladjustment and the effective targeting of children or families who may benefit from early assistance. Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research Despite evidence for convergent and predictive validity, the low internal consistency of the self-report measures of parenting may have limited the ability to show their association with childrens anxious difficulties. Conversely, mothers reports of their childrens functioning were components of the scores for inhibition and internalizing problems, such that common source variance may have contributed to the associations between these variables and mothers reported parenting. Given the correlational design, causality cannot be inferred and the presumed direction of effects of parental socialization cannot be taken for granted; despite being measured later in time, childrens anxious difficulties may have influenced parents socialization techniques. Furthermore, given the contemporaneous measurement of parental
61
socialization and childrens physiology, the role of parasympathetic regulation as a moderator is hypothetical only; it would have been just as plausible to suggest that socialization moderated the relations between vagal tone or vagal suppression and childrens anxious difficulties. One could also question whether the puzzle task was an appropriate challenge for assessing dynamic vagal change as it pertains to social and emotional functioning. Although past research has shown that young childrens vagal change to a puzzle task is positively correlated with vagal change to emotionally demanding procedures (Calkins & Keane, 2004), it is still plausible that the latter would be uniquely linked to problems. In response to these issues, researchers should expand upon the range of contextual modifiers of self-regulatory processes that have been considered. Examining childrens dynamic physiological processes under such naturalistic social conditions as peer play, or in response to emotionally challenging tasks such as mood induction procedures, might yield stronger associations with their social and emotional functioning. Similarly, improving and refining instruments to measure salient aspects of parental socialization will continue to be important. Repeated assessment of self-regulation, parenting, and adjustment over a longer developmental time course would help to disentangle direction-of-effect issues and could reveal whether the identified relations have enduring impacts on childrens well-being. Despite recognizing the limits of the current study and the need for further research, this investigation has provided novel and important information on the contributions of childrens physiological functioning and parental socialization to childrens internalizing problems and anxious adjustment. This work emphasizes the connections in childrens experiences across home, school, and peer contexts, the varying needs of individual children, and the contributions made by both mothers and fathers to their childrens wellbeing. Building on these insights will be essential for improving the identification of children who may be at risk for maladjustment and developing more effective interventions to support childrens development of social comfort and competence.
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Child Development, January/February 2008, Volume 79, Number 1, Pages 45 64

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

October to December January to April

Preschool visit Teacher questionnaire

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

.07 .01 .08

.04 .01 .04 .27**

.11 .07 .01 .28** .11

.01 .01 .01 .13 .17y .04

.02 .01 .02 .23* .10 .14 .15

.17y .13 .04 .05 .10 .07 .07 .14

.03 .05 .02 .01 .06 .11 .09 .08 .20*

.347 .05 .16 .12 .02 .14 .12 .001

.04 .11 .00

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

-0.125 -0.25 -0.375 -0.5 Low Protective High Protective

.474 .06 .16 .04

ns ns ns ns .216 .003 ns .05 ns .03 ns Adjusted R2 5 .000, F(7, 98) 5 0.69, ns

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

Less Vagal Suppression

More Vagal Suppression

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

Vagal Tone, Parenting, and Adjustment

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