Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Predicts Future Infant Sleep Quality and Emotional Reactivity to Stress

Undergraduate: Archita Chandra

Faculty Advisor: Cathi Propper
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Infant physiological regulation was examined with a sample of 90 African American mother-infant dyads. The focus was on the extent to which infant reactivity in normal and stressful scenarios could predict future sleep quality and emotional reactivity. Home visits took place when the infants were 3 and 6 months of age; baseline cardiac data, including measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), were gathered, and sleep assessments (via actigraphy) were conducted during the following week. To gauge the infants¿¿¿ responses to a stressful situation, the still-face paradigm (SFP) was administered at 6 months. Results show 3 month baseline RSA for when infants are in mothers¿¿¿ arms to be significant with 6 month night sleep ratio at the 0.05 significance level (r = .392, p = 009.). Additionally, 3 month baseline RSA when infants are not in mothers¿¿¿ arms was negatively significant with infants looking away from mothers in the reunion episode of the SF at the 0.01 significance level (r = -.329, p = .029). Ongoing analyses will test the effect of sleep quality on 6 month emotional reactivity and physiological regulation in the SFP. This project was made possible (in part) by support from the Office for Undergraduate Research at UNC-Chapel Hill.