The Interpersonal Dynamics of Violence Exposure and Adolescents' Autonomic Regulation

项目摘要 在特定的一年中，超过60%的美国青少年直接经历过人际暴力或目击 家庭或社区暴力。尽管暴露在人际暴力中会增加青少年患上 许多心理社会困难，并不是所有的青少年都会出现问题。生理应激调节是一种 受暴力侵害的青年的脆弱性的关键因素。越来越多的证据表明 人际暴力暴露于副交感神经(PNS)和副交感神经(PNS)的异常唤醒和调节模式 同情(SNS)活动，特别是对社会挑战的同情。人们认为，人际关系的动态 暴力(背叛、污名化、无能为力)使年轻人更容易感受到人际压力 作为威胁并动员与威胁相关的ANS应激反应。不幸的是，评估这些的研究 索赔在重要方面受到限制，在以下方面留下了重大的知识空白：(1)如何暴露暴力 青少年在年龄规范的互动中调节自主反应，这会导致人际暴力 动力学和(2)青少年在这些背景下的自主神经反应是否与心理社会有关 跨领域的功能(例如，心理健康、人际功能、健康风险行为)。建议数 该项目是对美国国立卫生研究院最近授予的一项拨款的补充，该拨款将验证对 这些暴力动态使用虚拟现实(VR)技术(HD092956)。具体地说，这个项目将增加 自主神经调节(心率变异性和心脏射血前期)对VR的评估 评估以检查青少年暴力暴露与VR期间的监管之间的关系 不同领域的评估和青少年适应(心理健康、人际功能和 健康危险行为)。我们还将探讨这些协会的潜在主持人，包括性别和 父母教养方式，以及PNS和SNS调节的同步性上的个体差异。研究结果将会取得进展 了解青少年如何在年龄规范的人际挑战中调节压力，并告知 开展更大规模的前瞻性研究，以考察暴力暴露、 现实环境中的压力调节，以及青少年的适应。由于虚拟现实评估的高度 便携，可广泛传播给研究人员，以进一步推动理论和研究 暴力暴露对压力调节和调节的连锁效应。此外，我们的范例可能是 纳入针对压力调节和暴力的创伤知情干预的临床研究 动态或为改进压力调节和增强的新干预提供平台 通过排练触发或年龄显著的挑战性互动来提高能力。

Project Summary In a given year, over 60% of adolescents in the U.S. directly experience interpersonal violence or witness family or community violence. Although exposure to interpersonal violence increases adolescents’ risk for numerous psychosocial difficulties, not all adolescents develop problems. Physiological stress regulation is a critical factor underlying the vulnerability of violence-exposed youth. A growing body of evidence links interpersonal violence exposure to aberrant patterns of arousal and regulation in parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) activity, particularly to social challenges. It is believed that the dynamics of interpersonal violence (betrayal, stigmatization, powerlessness) render youth more likely to perceive interpersonal stressors as threatening and mobilize threat-related ANS stress responses. Unfortunately, research evaluating these claims is limited in important ways, leaving significant knowledge gaps regarding (1) how violence-exposed adolescents regulate autonomic responses in age-normative interactions that pull for interpersonal violence dynamics and (2) whether adolescents’ autonomic responses in these contexts are related to psychosocial functioning across domains (e.g., mental health, interpersonal functioning, health risk behavior). The proposed project adds to a recently awarded NIH grant that will validate a developmentally sensitive assessment of these violence dynamics using virtual reality (VR) technology (HD092956). Specifically, this project will add assessments of autonomic regulation (heart rate variability and cardiac pre-ejection period) to the VR assessment to examine associations between adolescents’ violence exposure, ANS regulation during the VR assessment, and adolescent adjustment across various domains (mental health, interpersonal functioning, and health risk behavior). We will also explore potential moderators of these associations, including gender and parenting, as well as individual differences in the synchrony of PNS and SNS regulation. Findings will advance knowledge of how adolescents regulate stress during age-normative interpersonal challenges and inform the development of larger prospective studies that can examine longitudinal relations between violence exposure, stress regulation in real world contexts, and adolescent adjustment. Since the VR assessment is highly portable, it can be disseminated broadly to researchers to further advance theory and research on the cascading effects of violence exposure on stress regulation and adjustment. In addition, our paradigm could be incorporated into clinical research on trauma-informed interventions targeting stress regulation and violence dynamics or provide a platform for new interventions for improving stress regulation and enhancing competencies through the rehearsal of triggering or age-salient challenging interactions.