Key result
Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia increases until age 10 while RSA reactivity peaks around age 7.
Why the study?
Understanding developmental patterns of children resting RSA and RSA reactivity from toddlerhood to adolescence is important to understanding larger constructs of self- and emotion regulation.
Cohort (n=270)
No
The study maps the distinct developmental trajectories of resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and its reactivity from early childhood to adolescence, providing normative physiological data relevant to emotion regulation.
Parasympathetic nervous system functioning as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is widely used as a measure of physiological regulation. We examined developmental patterns of children's resting RSA and RSA reactivity from 2 to 15 years of age, a period of time that is marked by considerable advances in children's regulatory abilities. Physiological data were collected from a community sample of 270 children (116 males) during a resting period and during a frustration laboratory task when the children were 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, and 15 years old. We examined both stability and continuity in resting RSA and RSA reactivity across time. We found stability in resting RSA but not RSA reactivity from toddlerhood to adolescence. Separate multilevel models were used to examine changes in resting RSA and RSA reactivity from Age 2 to Age 15. The rate of change in resting RSA slowed from Age 2 to Age 15 with a plateau around Age 10. A splined growth model indicated that the rate of RSA reactivity increased from Age 2 to Age 7 and a modest slowing and leveling off from Age 7 to Age 15. Understanding the developmental characteristics of RSA across childhood and adolescence is important to understanding the larger constructs of self- and emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Dollar et al. (2020) conducted a cohort in Development of physiological regulation (n=270). Developmental maturation (Ages 2 to 15) was evaluated on Trajectories of resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA reactivity from age 2 to 15. Children's resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia increased continuously before plateauing around age 10, while RSA reactivity increased from age 2 to 7 followed by a modest leveling off through adolescence.
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