Indicators of affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and social attention during emotional clips in relation to aggression in 3-year-olds.

Research indicates that impaired empathy is a risk factor of aggression and that social attention is important for empathy. The role of social attention in associations between empathy and aggression has not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, indicators of affective empathy, cognitive empathy, social attention, and aggression were simultaneously assessed in children aged 45 months. A total of 61 mother-child dyads participated in a lab visit, during which maternal reports of aggression were obtained. Children watched three clips showing a sad, scared, and happy child, respectively, and a neutral social clip while heart rate was recorded. Heart rate change from nonsocial baseline clips to emotional clips was calculated as an index of affective empathy. Questions about the emotions of the children in the clips were asked to assess cognitive empathy. Social attention was defined as time spent looking at faces during the clips. Correlation analyses revealed negative associations between affective empathy and aggression and between social attention and aggression. Furthermore, multivariate linear regression analyses indicated that the association between affective empathy and aggression was moderated by social attention; the negative association between affective empathy and aggression was stronger in children with relatively reduced social attention. No association was found between cognitive empathy and aggression. Therefore, both affective empathy and social attention are important targets for early interventions that aim to prevent or reduce aggression.

Empathic distress and concern predict aggression in toddlerhood: The moderating role of sex.

Impaired empathy is an important risk factor of aggression, but results are contradictory in toddlerhood. The association between empathy and aggression may differ for empathic distress and empathic concern in response to empathy-evoking situations, and for boys and girls. Therefore, the current study investigated whether empathic distress and empathic concern at age 20 months (N = 133, 69 boys) predicted aggression at ages 20 and 30 months (N = 119, 62 boys), while taking a potential moderating effect of sex into account. Empathic behavior was observed during a distress simulation task 20 months post-partum. Physical aggression was assessed through maternal report, using the Physical Aggression Scale for Early Childhood. Linear regression analyses revealed sex differences in the associations between empathic distress and concern on the one hand and physical aggression at age 20 months on the other. Furthermore, physical aggression at age 30 months was predicted by the interaction of sex with empathic distress at age 20 months, while controlling for aggression at age 20 months. More empathic distress and concern were associated with less physical aggression in girls, but not in boys. The findings indicate that the prediction of physical aggression by empathic distress was more robust over time than for empathic concern. This study sheds new light on the intricate relationship between empathy, aggression, and sex from a developmental perspective.

Infant Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Activity during Baseline, Stress and Recovery: Interactions with Prenatal Adversity Predict Physical Aggression in Toddlerhood.

Exposure to prenatal adversity is associated with aggression later in life. Individual differences in autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, specifically nonreciprocal activation of the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems, increase susceptibility to aggression, especially in the context of adversity. Previous work examining interactions between early adversity and ANS functioning in infancy is scarce and has not examined interaction between PNS and SNS. This study examined whether the PNS and SNS moderate the relation between cumulative prenatal risk and early physical aggression in 124 children (57% male). Cumulative risk (e.g., maternal psychiatric disorder, substance (ab)use, and social adversity) was assessed during pregnancy. Parasympathetic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and sympathetic pre-ejection period (PEP) at baseline, in response to and during recovery from emotional challenge were measured at 6 months. Physical aggression and non-physical aggression/oppositional behavior were measured at 30 months. The results showed that cumulative prenatal risk predicted elevated physical aggression and non-physical aggression/oppositional behavior in toddlerhood; however, the effects on physical aggression were moderated by PNS and SNS functioning. Specifically, the effects of cumulative risk on physical aggression were particularly evident in children characterized by low baseline PNS activity and/or by nonreciprocal activity of the PNS and SNS, characterized by decreased activity (i.e., coinhibition) or increased activity (i.e., coactivation) of both systems at baseline and/or in response to emotional challenge. These findings extend our understanding of the interaction between perinatal risk and infant ANS functioning on developmental outcome.

Interaction between prenatal risk and infant parasympathetic and sympathetic stress reactivity predicts early aggression.

Nonreciprocal action of the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems, increases susceptibility to emotional and behavioral problems in children exposed to adversity. Little is known about the PNS and SNS in interaction with early adversity during infancy. Yet this is when the physiological systems involved in emotion regulation are emerging and presumably most responsive to environmental influences. We examined whether parasympathetic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and sympathetic pre-ejection period (PEP) response and recovery at six months, moderate the association between cumulative prenatal risk and physical aggression at 20 months (N=113). Prenatal risk predicted physical aggression, but only in infants exhibiting coactivation of PNS and SNS (i.e., increase in RSA and decrease in PEP) in response to stress. These findings indicate that coactivation of the PNS and SNS in combination with prenatal risk is a biological marker for the development of aggression.

Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Development of Aggression in Infancy: the Roles of Maternal Intrusiveness and Sensitivity.

Maternal reflective functioning (RF) has been associated with quality of parent-child interactions and child development. This study investigated whether prenatal RF predicted the development of infant physical aggression and whether maternal sensitivity and/or intrusiveness mediated or moderated this association. The sample consisted of 96 first-time mothers (M = 22.57 years, SD = 2.13) and their infants (54 % male). Prenatal RF was measured with an interview, maternal behavior was observed during free play at 6 months post-partum, and infant physical aggression was assessed at 6, 12, and 20 months using maternal reports. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that relatively poor prenatal RF was related to relatively high infant physical aggression. These associations were moderated by maternal intrusiveness, with significant differences in physical aggression between RF-groups reportedly only in the absence of intrusiveness. Generally, mothers reported an increase in physical aggression between 6 and 12 months, except when they had both low RF-skills and were relatively less sensitive. It is concluded that prenatal RF is associated with (development of) infant physical aggression, and may be targeted in intervention programs aimed at reducing early physical aggression. Less adequate parenting, however, may counteract the beneficial effects of good RF, or obscure insight into children's behavioral development.

Maternal reflective functioning as a multidimensional construct: Differential associations with children's temperament and externalizing behavior.

Maternal reflective functioning (RF) has been associated with children's behavioral development. This study examined maternal prenatal and postnatal RF, as measured by the Pregnancy Interview and Parent Development Interview, as multidimensional constructs. It was also examined whether the RF-dimensions were associated with children's temperament and externalizing behavior, as assessed by several questionnaires. The sample consisted of 123 first-time mothers (M age=22.85years, SD=2.21) and their children (M age=19.97months, SD=0.85, 56% male). Two related but distinct dimensions were found for prenatal RF, termed self-focused and child-focused mentalization. Three dimensions were observed for postnatal RF, termed self-focused, child-focused, and relation-focused mentalization. Results showed that prenatal RF negatively related to reported child physical aggression. Postnatal self-focused RF was positively linked to externalizing behavior and negative emotionality in offspring, while relation-focused RF scores were negatively associated with child physical aggression. Findings show that it is important to also look at the specific RF-dimensions when examining the effects of maternal RF on children's behavioral development, as differential associations with behavioral outcomes exist. Discussion further focuses on the importance of these findings in prevention and clinical practice, and suggestions are being made to further improve the measurement of maternal RF-dimensions.

Salivary cortisol and aggression in a population-based longitudinal study of adolescent males.

Chronic antisocial behaviour in youth has been associated with cortisol, a measure of stress reactivity. However, some studies have found low cortisol levels, while others have found elevated cortisol levels. The present study compared variously defined aggressive subgroups for differences in salivary cortisol. A population-based sample of boys was followed longitudinally from childhood to adolescence. Assessments of different forms of antisocial behaviour were obtained from various informants at several points in time, and cortisol was collected at age 13. Higher cortisol levels were found in boys with conduct disorder (CD) than in boys without CD. In addition, boys with an aggressive form of CD had higher cortisol levels than boys who showed a covert form of CD. Furthermore, reactive aggression was strongly correlated with elevated cortisol. Adolescent boys with chronic reactive aggression and those who scored high on aggressive CD symptoms seem to have a more active hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system.

Do adolescent anorexia nervosa patients have deficits in emotional functioning?

Adult eating disorder patients have been characterised by alexithymia. We investigated whether adolescent eating disorder patients also show deficits in emotional functioning. To measure emotional functioning a questionnaire (the TAS) and an emotion recognition test were administered to 30 eating disorder (ED) adolescent girls and 31 healthy controls (HC), matched for age, education, and social status. Non-emotional, cognitive parallel tasks were administered on the same occasion to find out whether a possible deficit was emotion-specific or of a more general cognitive nature. The ED patients scored higher on the TAS and performed worse on the emotion recognition test, but no differences between the groups were found on the non-emotional cognitive instruments. It was concluded that adolescent eating disorder patients, just like adult eating disorder patients, are characterised by alexithymia and show specific deficits in emotional functioning. The implications of these findings are discussed.