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Temperament And Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia As Contributors To Externalizing Behavior Among Early Adolescents, Tyler Laney Ph.D.

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

The current study examines the relationship between temperament and physiological models of externalizing behavior to externalizing behavior in a community sample of early adolescents. The psychophysiological component of vagal tone, as measured by respirator sinus arrhythmia (RSA), is used with an emphasis placed on distinguishing between its function as a state versus trait measure of parasympathetic nervous system activity. Negative affectivity (NA) is proposed as a general risk factor for psychopathology. Emotion regulation, as indexed by effortful control (EC) and basal RSA, is hypothesized to function as a mediator between NA and externalizing behavior. A moderated mediation model is then …