Adverse Childhood Experiences And Adults’ Adjustment

With the development of neurophysiological research methods and techniques,the role of the autonomic nervous system in individual development has attracted researches extensive attention.The autonomic nervous system(ANS)includes sympathetic and parasympathetic branches,regulating an organism’s response to changes in the internal and external environment that maintains homeostasis.Respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA),as an essential indicator of the parasympathetic nerve,represents an individual’s potential for self-regulation ability.Empirical studies have found that higher baseline RSA can significantly predict adaptive emotional regulation strategies and social behaviors,as well as buffer the negative effects of early adverse experiences.However,the conclusion of this research is not consistent and further discussion is needed.In addition,the sympathetic nervous system as an individual’s motivation system plays an important role in stressful or challenging situations.However,there is still a lack of empirical studies on the role of PEP in individual development as an indicator of sympathetic nervous system.Therefore,the current explored the main effect of baseline values of RSA and PEP on individual social behaviors and the moderating effect of RSA and PEP baseline on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and social behaviors.Data were collected from 259 adults who were working and living in Shanghai,China(20-30 years old,Mage = 25.85 years,SD=2.23,4.65% male).Adult self-report adverse childhood experiences(emotion maltreatment,EM;and exposure to family violence,ETFV),aggressive behavior,and perceived stress.Collected electrocardiogram(ECG),respiration,and cardiac output data to calculate respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA)and pre-ejection period(PEP).Then,we test the main effect of ANS and the moderation effect of the ANS baseline in the context of adverse childhood experiences.Finally,to investigate the difference and reliability of the RSA baseline under two different conditionsResults indicated that: 1).Resting RSA baseline was negatively associated with aggressive,individual with high RSA baseline shown lower aggressive behavior.However,there was no significant relationship between PEP resting and adjustments.2).RSA baseline interacted with exposure to family violence and emotion maltreatment in predicting perceived stress were significant,emotion maltreatment and exposure to family violence were positively associated with perceived stress only among individuals with lower RSA baseline,but not higher RSA baseline.3).PEP resting can moderate the relationship between ETFV and aggressive behavior.It means that exposure to family violence can positively predict aggressive behavior among individuals with lower PEP baseline,but not higher PEP baseline.4).Resting RSA baseline and RSA in watching video period can also protect individual from adverse experiences.