:the Relationship Between Parental Conflict And Child Depressive Symptoms:the Effects Of Parental Warmth And Vagal Nerve Function

Depression is a possible internalizing disorder in children.Interparental conflict is one of important factors influencing children's depressive symptoms.According to the Spill-over theory,interparental conflict may have a negative effect on children's depressive symptoms indirectly thought parental warmth.Furthermore,vagal nerve function might play a moderating role in the process.Thus,the purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship among interparental conflict,parental warmth,and depressive symptoms as well as the moderating role of vagal nerve fuction in this relationship.A total of 114 participants were selected from the community and completed three questionnaires including the interparental conflict scale,the parental warmth scale,and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children.Physiological polymeter was to measure the vagal nerve activities aroused by TSST(Terier Social Stress Task).Results showed that: 1)the indirect effect of interparental conflict on depressive symptoms was significant;2)parental warmth partially mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and children's depressive symptoms;3)in the path of interparental conflict-parental warm-depressive symptoms,resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA)and RSA reactivity during the speech task instead of RSA during the math task moderated the relationship between parental warmth and depressive symptoms;4)both resting RSA and RSA reactivity during the speech or math task failed to moderate the relationship between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms.Therefore,parental warmth plays a mediating role in the relationship between between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms.Moreover,vagal nerve function buffered the effect of low parental warmth on depressive symptoms.