Does Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Exacerbate Depressive Symptoms in College Students Who Experienced Parent-Child Separation? A Longitudinal Examination.

Childhood separation caused by parental migration increases the risk of suffering depressive symptoms among college students. However, most studies in this field have focused on environmental factors and largely ignored the role of physiological reactivity to stress (e.g., parasympathetic nervous system activity) in this process. The present study examined the long-term effects of the parent-child separation experience on depressive symptoms in college students, and explored the moderating role of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in these relationships. The participants were 242 college students (Mage = 18.74 years, SD = 0.79; 32.2% male), including 149 college students who experienced parent-child separation and 93 college students without this experience. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, participants completed the measures of the parent-child separation experience, PNS activity (measured via respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA), and depressive symptoms at Time 1 (T1, before the COVID-19 lockdown). Their depressive symptoms were again measured at Time 2 (T2, during the COVID-19 lockdown) and Time 3 (T3, after the COVID-19 lockdown). The results showed that the parent-child separation experience positively predicted depressive symptoms in college students at three time points. Moreover, the parent-child separation experience positively predicted depressive symptoms at T2 among males with less and average RSA suppression but positively predicted depressive symptoms at T2 among females with greater RSA suppression. These findings indicate a long-term effect of parent-child separation on depressive symptoms in college students that still exist after they entered university, and that the effect varies depending on PNS activity and gender.

Parent-Child Cohesion and College Students' Positive/Negative Affect: The Moderating Roles of Sympathetic Nervous System Activity and Parent-Child Separation Experience.

Parent-child separation caused by parental migration could have adverse effects on individuals' emotional adaptation. However, research on this topic is limited in its focus on childhood or adolescence samples and solely environmental factors, and less is known about how positive environmental factors, biological factors and parent-child separation experience interact to influence emotional adaptation in emerging adulthood. The present study addressed these issues by investigating the relationships between parent-child cohesion and positive/negative affect, and examining the moderating roles of sympathetic nervous system activity (measured by skin conductance level reactivity, SCLR) and parent-child separation experience in the relationships. Data from 248 college students (Mage = 18.91 years, SD = 0.70; 32.3% males), including 158 college students with parent-child separation experience and 90 college students without parent-child separation experience. The results showed that parent-child cohesion predicted college students' positive/negative affect. Moreover, the moderating role of SCLR on the relationship between father-child cohesion and negative affect varied with parent-child separation experience. Specifically, father-child cohesion negatively predicted negative affect when SCLR was lower for college students with parent-child separation experience, while negatively predicted negative affect when SCLR was higher for college students without parent-child separation experience. These results indicate that the interaction pattern of Biological × Environmental predicting college students' positive/negative affect varies across parent-child separation status in childhood or adolescence.

Childhood psychological maltreatment and social anxiety in college students: The roles of parasympathetic nervous system activity and parent-child separation experience.

BACKGROUND: Childhood psychological maltreatment is a risk factor for social anxiety in adulthood. Parent-child separation, as one of the most serious adversities in early life, may exacerbate the risk of psychological maltreatment and influence the interactions between childhood psychological maltreatment and biological sensitivity to stress in relation to social anxiety. However, there has been a dearth of work on this issue. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the interactive effects between childhood psychological maltreatment and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity on social anxiety in college students by comparing those who experienced parent-child separation versus those who did not. Potential sex differences in the aforementioned associations were tested as an exploratory aim. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data were obtained from 264 college students (Mage = 18.45 years, SD = 0.69), including 156 students who experienced parent-child separation and 108 students without this experience. METHODS: Participants completed measures of childhood psychological maltreatment and social anxiety and reported their parent-child separation experience. The data of PNS activity, measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity, were obtained during the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in the lab. RESULTS: Childhood psychological maltreatment was positively associated with college students' social anxiety. RSA reactivity moderated the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and college students' social anxiety, and the moderating role of RSA reactivity varied with parent-child separation experience and sex. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-child separation experience influenced the biosocial interactions between childhood psychological maltreatment and PNS activity in relation to individuals' social anxiety, and this effect persisted in adulthood.

Separating the effects of stimulus-gravity compatibility and stimulus-response compatibility on visuomotor synchronization.

Synchronizing finger movements with the motion of a visual target is especially successful when tapping downward with a downward-moving stimulus. One explanation is that the directional compatibility of stimulus movement (downward) and synchronized action (downward) enhances the synchronization performance. Another is that the performance is enhanced by the directional compatibility of stimulus movement (downward) and gravity (downward). This study separated effects of stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) and stimulus-gravity compatibility (SGC) by manipulating both the stimulus movement direction and the tapping direction. Results showed a robust effect of SGC on the synchronization performance-that is, more directional compatibility between stimulus movement-and gravity yielded more stable synchronization. SRC also influenced the performance, although this effect was only pronounced in fast sequences. The SGC effect suggests that the brain can exploit prior knowledge of gravity direction to enhance timing in visuomotor synchronization. The SRC effect suggests that the coding of visual events and synchronized actions might operate in a common representational medium, and the influence of sequence rate might reflect the rate limitation of information transfer from the visual system to motor system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).