Why the study?
Research on parenting stress and children's parasympathetic activity is virtually absent, and few studies have examined changes in children's parasympathetic regulation across settings with and without a parent present.
Does child effortful control moderate the association between parenting stress and child parasympathetic regulation?
Population
67 parents (M = 38.01 years) and 70 children (M = 51.41 months)
Comparison
Variations across effortful control measures and physiology assessment contexts
Design
Laboratory observational study
Key result
Child effortful control moderated the association between parenting stress and child respiratory sinus arrhythmia, with effects varying by assessment measure and context.
Authors
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Should not yet change practice; hypothesis-generating for effortful control's moderating role in stress-autonomic links.
Observational (n=137)
Does child effortful control moderate the association between parenting stress and child parasympathetic regulation?
Child effortful control moderates the relationship between parenting stress and child parasympathetic regulation, with effects varying by assessment context and measure type.
Golden et al. (2025) conducted an observational in Parenting stress and child self-regulation (n=137). Parenting stress (exposure) was evaluated on Children's parasympathetic activity, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Child effortful control moderated the association between parenting stress and child respiratory sinus arrhythmia, with effects varying by assessment measure and context.