title: Individual differences in adolescents' sympathetic and parasympathetic functioning moderate associations between family environment and psychosocial adjustment.
abstract: The present study tested whether individual differences in autonomic nervous system functioning interact with environmental risk factors to predict adolescents' psychosocial functioning. The authors assessed skin conductance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia at rest and during laboratory stressors in 110 14-year-olds. Subsequently, adolescents and their mothers provided both questionnaire and daily diary data (over 10 days) on emotional and interpersonal functioning. The authors found stronger associations between environmental risk factors (having a single-mother household or a mother with high internalizing problems) and psychosocial outcomes (externalizing problems, daily negative affect, and daily interaction quality) among youths with specific patterns of tonic and stress-induced sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, but the pattern of moderating effects differed between boys and girls. The findings support the notion that individual differences in autonomic functioning index variation in youth's susceptibility to environmental risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East, Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0251, USA. diamond@psych.utah.edu
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Diamond
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Fagundes
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cribbet
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001146:Arrhythmia, Sinus; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004777:Environment; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*