Parental problem drinking (PPD) is associated with various forms of child psychopathology, including hyperactivity, conduct disorder, delinquency, depression and anxiety. However, not all children share the same risk for developing adjustment problems in the context of PPD. In this study, we examined patterns of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity account for differential susceptibility to the adverse effects of PPD in middle childhood. We found that reciprocal SNS activation protects against child internalizing symptoms in the context of mother problem drinking. We also found consistent interactions between PNS and SNS in predicting child internalizing problems. Coinhibition is linked to more internalizing symptoms including anxiety and depression. This study provides further support for Autonomic Space Theory and demonstrates the importance of taking both PNS and SNS into account when studying physiological response to stress.

Understanding physiological responses to threat can inform therapeutic interventions for phobias, anxieties, and PTSD. The defense cascade is reviewed as a theoretical model that predicts behavioral and physiological responses to threats. Nineteen undergraduates (five male), average age 19.4 experienced a novel virtual reality (VR) threat scenario while their physiology was measured. The Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) was used as a self-report indicator of distress in the research setting. Averaged SUDS reports suggested that the VR stimulus was experienced as threatening for most participants, but their autonomic response patterns did not fit those predicted by the defense cascade. Participants who had scored high on adaptive response questionnaires tended to show uncoupled ANS activation during baseline, but varied across the stimulus condition. Nearly all participants showed either coactivation or reciprocal activation during the stimulus period except those reporting the most dissociative trauma experiences, who mostly showed uncoupled ANS activation. / M.S. / The more we understand about how people’s bodies and their energies act when they feel threatened, the better we can find help for folks who struggle with anxiety, trauma or other challenging conditions. This research uses a theoretical model called the defense cascade to explore how people respond mentally and physically to threatening situations. Nineteen undergraduates went through a virtual reality (VR) experience that was designed to feel threatening while their body and its energy systems were measured. A scale was introduced called the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) and was used to help the researchers understand how distressed people felt while they were in the VR experience. Averaged SUDS reports suggested that the VR stimulus was experienced as threatening for most participants, but their body response patterns did not fit those predicted by the defense cascade. Participants whose questionnaire responses suggested they were not anxiety-prone or traumatized, tended to show bodily activation that uncoupled their two autonomic bodily systems during a baseline period before the threatening stimulus. However, their autonomic responses during the stimulus period varied. Nearly all participants showed either both autonomic systems acting together or only one system acting in a mutually exclusive way to the other system during the stimulus period. This was the case for most participants except those reporting the most trauma involving dissociative experiences. This latter group mostly showed uncoupled autonomic bodily patterns.