Peer-reviewed article
Dyadic and bidirectional associations between physiological reactivity and maternal overcontrol.
Jennifer A Somers, Patricia A Smiley, Jessica L Borelli ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how a mother's controlling behaviour during challenging tasks is linked to both her own and her child's heart rate changes. Researchers observed 112 mothers and their children (aged 8-12) solving impossible puzzles and measured their heart rates and maternal control. The findings were mixed: mothers' heart rate increased with overcontrol at the end of the task, but children's heart rate showed the opposite pattern early on, suggesting complex interactions between parent and child stress responses.
Key points
- Few direct associations found between children's or mothers' heart rate and maternal overcontrol
- Mothers' increased heart rate was associated with increased overcontrol at the end of the challenging task
- Children's increased heart rate was marginally associated with less maternal overcontrol during the first half of the task
- The study used latent curve models with structured residuals to examine dyadic autonomic patterns
- Findings suggest mothers may adjust control based on children's engagement levels rather than arousal alone
Limitations
The study was conducted in a single artificial laboratory task with puzzles, which may not reflect real-world parenting dynamics or generalise across different contexts and cultural settings. The country of the study is inferred from sample demographics (41.1% White, non-Hispanic) and is not explicitly stated in the document.
Abstract
Negative emotional arousal is linked to parental overcontrol, which in turn may be reinforced by subsequent increases in both children's and parents' emotional reactivity. However, to date no studies have adopted a dyadic perspective that examines bidirectional, within-dyad associations between children's and their parent's physiological functioning and parental overcontrol during challenge. We examined the dyadic autonomic correlates of overcontrol, predicting that relative increases in each dyad member's heart rate (HR) would both precede and follow relative increases in maternal overcontrol. Hypotheses were evaluated in 112 mother-child dyads (8- to 12-year-olds; Mage = 10.28 yrs.; 51.6% male; 41.1% White, non-Hispanic) who participated in a series of six impossible-to-solve puzzles. Results of latent curve models with structured residuals demonstrated few associations between mothers' or children's HR and maternal overcontrol. Mothers' HR was positively associated with maternal overcontrol at the end of the challenging task. Surprisingly, children's HR was marginally negatively associated with subsequent maternal overcontrol, which in turn was negatively associated with children's subsequent HR, during the first half of the challenging task. Deviations in child physiological functioning may influence maternal behavior through mothers' orienting toward children's level of engagement in the task; future work is needed to assess whether overcontrol reflects mothers' efforts to upregulate their children's arousal and motivation during a performance challenge.