Date of Award

8-16-2024

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Jessica Bradshaw

Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), a measure of parasympathetic nervous system activation, has been linked to socioemotional and language development (Porges, 2007; Thayer & Lane, 2000). Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show lower RSA (Patriquin et al., 2011) while both children with ASD and children from lower SES backgrounds show differences in early social-communication development (Jones-Mason et al., 2018). However, little is known about interactions between sociodemographic risk and physiological regulation within the context of ASD and social-communication development. The present study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between RSA (as indexed by RSA suppression and resting-state RSA), genetic likelihood for ASD, and sociodemographic risk in predicting social-communication skills within the first year of life. Participants included 61 infants (n=30 female) at elevated or low genetic likelihood for ASD as part of a larger longitudinal study. Results found that RSA did not significantly predict genetic likelihood for ASD. Genetic likelihood for ASD was significantly associated with social-communication scores. Measures of RSA and sociodemographic risk did not significantly predict emerging social communication within the first year of life. Findings suggest that healthy physiological regulation may serve as a protective effect for infants who are otherwise at greater risk for deficits in social communication due to compounding genetic (likelihood for ASD) and epigenetic (exposure to greater sociodemographic risk) factors.

Rights

© 2024, Tessa Djiko

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