1. Maternal Insensitivity in Childhood Predicts Greater Electrodermal Reactivity During Adult Romantic Conflict Jeffry Simpson, Lee Raby, Glenn Roisman, Andrew Collins & Ryan Steele University of Minnesota

2. Long-term Significance of Early Relationships  A longstanding question: Do early caregiving experiences influence interpersonal functioning across the life- course?  Childhood experiences with caregivers predict adults’ observed behaviors and self-reported thoughts and feelings in their romantic relationships

3. Incorporating Biological Levels of Analysis  Can provide unique insights into individuals’ emotional responses during interpersonal situations  Less susceptible to response biases and defensive distortions  Captures automatic processes operating outside awareness

4. Sympathetic Nervous System  Part of the stress response system  Fairly rapid fight-or-flight responses to threat  Can be assessed continuously and noninvasively  Electrodermal activity (skin conductance)  A physiological index of anxiety and effortful behavior inhibition

5. Psychophysiology of Adult Attachment  Adults who have more insecure attachment representations respond to interpersonally threatening situations with greater electrodermal activity  These representations are rooted in childhood caregiving experiences  Early parent-child relationship experiences may organize SNS responses in romantic relationship interactions  Limitation: They may not reflect adults’ actual early caregiving experiences

6. Current Study: Questions  Do less supportive childhood caregiving experiences (observer-rated) predict greater electrodermal reactivity during conflict discussions with romantic partners in adulthood?  If so, is the longitudinal association independent of: (a) the quality of the current romantic relationship, and (b) demographic confounds?

7. Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation Sample  Born in mid-1970s to first-time mothers living below the poverty line  48% of mothers were teenagers, 63% were single, and 42% had received less than a high school education Research design  Followed from birth into middle adulthood  37 participants (46% female) took part in the current assessment when they were 34-36 years old  Average relationship length was 8.1 years

8. Conflict Discussion Procedure 1.Partners separately listed the top three sources of conflict in their relationship 2.Physiological sensors were attached and baseline recordings were collected for 3 minutes 3.Each couple then selected the “biggest and most unresolved” topic in their relationship to discuss 4.Each couple talked about and tried to resolve the problem for 7 minutes while being video-recorded

9. Measures  Electrodermal reactivity  The difference between mean levels during baseline and conflict discussion  Observed romantic relationship functioning  Behaviors during the conflict discussions were coded for Positive and Negative Affect  Perceived romantic relationship quality  Self-report relationship quality (the PRQC)

10. Childhood Caregiving Experiences  Observations of mother-child interactions were collected at 7 points during development  Feeding and play observations (3m & 6m)  Laboratory-based tasks (24m, 42m, 13yr)  HOME assessments (30m & 72m)  Developmentally appropriate ratings of maternal sensitivity were made at each age  A composite measure of maternal sensitivity across childhood was created

11. Covariates  Maternal education  Assessed multiple times across childhood and adolescence  SES  Assessed multiple times across childhood and adolescence (using Duncan’s Socioeconomic Index)  Child ethnicity  White/non-Hispanic = 1; Non-White = 0  Child gender  Female = 1; Male = 0

12. Regression Results Predicting SCL Scores bSEβp Step 1 Maternal sensitivity -0.94.43-.33.03

13. Regression Results Predicting SCL Scores bSEβp Step 2 Maternal sensitivity -0.98.46-.36.02 Target: observed rel. qlty. 0.05.13.07.70 Target: perceived rel. qlty. -0.11.41-.05.79 Partner: observed rel. qlty. 0.04.13.07.69 Partner: perceived rel. qlty. 0.13.56.04.82

14. Regression Results Predicting SCL Scores bSEβp Step 3 Maternal sensitivity -0.98.46-.36.02 Target: observed rel. qlty. 0.05.13.07.70 Target: perceived rel. qlty. -0.11.41-.05.79 Partner: observed rel. qlty. 0.04.13.07.69 Partner: perceived rel. qlty. 0.13.56.04.82 Gender 1.43.54.40.01 Ethnicity -0.92.60-.24.12 Maternal education 0.08.30.07.78 Socioeconomic status 0.03.04.12.55

15. Conclusions  This study suggests that childhood caregiving experiences may play a unique role in organizing ANS responses during romantic conflicts in adulthood  It extends prior research on:  The developmental antecedents of adult romantic relationship functioning  The early social regulation of individuals’ stress neurobiology

16. Future Directions  Replication in larger samples  Mediating processes  Wider range of physiological systems (e.g., RSA) and relationship contexts (e.g., parent-child)  Role of these processes in physical and mental health outcomes

17. Acknowledgements MLSRA staff Judy Cook Michelle Englund Brian Peterson Funding National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Collaborators Glenn Roisman Andy Collins Lee Raby Ryan Steele Research assistants Jen Fillo Sally Kuo Angela Narayan Jenn Puig Jessica Salvatore Sooyeon Sung