Self‐regulated behavior and parent‐child co‐regulation are associated with young children's physiological response to receiving critical adult feedback

Using piecewise growth curve trajectory modeling, we investigated kindergartners' physiological responses to receiving critical feedback from an adult during a laboratory drawing task. Further, we tested how children's independent self‐regulated behavior, as well as the quality of parent‐child co‐regulation, related to physiological reactivity to and recovery from this challenge. We used respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) to measure parasympathetic nervous system activity. Participants were 96 children ( M age = 5.6 years, 56% female) and their parents. We used observer ratings to capture children's self‐regulated behavior during the laboratory visit and state‐space grid methodology (an innovative, moment‐to‐moment behavioral coding method) to index observed parent‐child positive co‐regulation during four interaction tasks. First, the quality of dyadic parent‐child co‐regulation was associated significantly with children's RSA reactivity during the dyadic experience of receiving critical feedback from an adult. Specifically, children with higher levels of positive parent‐child co‐regulation exhibited decreases in RSA while receiving critical feedback, which may indicate active engagement or coping with the challenging situation. Second, children's self‐regulated behavior was associated significantly with RSA recovery during a period immediately after the task ended, when children were seated alone. Children with lower levels of observed self‐regulated behavior showed sudden RSA decrease after the critical feedback ceased, suggesting that this post‐task period was physiologically challenging for them.