Investigating Physiology‐Behavior Associations for Youth During Parent–Child Conflict Discussions

Adolescents' observed affective behavior is associated with patterns of concurrent physiological responding, which explain clinically relevant outcomes. Few studies have elucidated the physiology-behavior association during the developmentally salient context of conflict with parents. The current study evaluated associations between respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) activity and observed youth affective behavior during parent-child conflict. We took a contextually informed approach to address limitations of past research with a clinical sample of parent-child dyads (N = 162, M_youthage = 12.03 (0.92) years; 46.9% female; 42% White and non-Hispanic/Latinx; 40.7% Black; 16.7% multiracial). Dyads completed a conflict discussion during which youths' affective behaviors were observationally coded. Additionally, we measured youths' RSA and subjective affect as well as parents' negative behavior. Youths' angry/defiant behavior was predicted by faster RSA withdrawal, increases in subjective negative affect, and more negative parent behavior, whereas youths' sad/distressed and positive engagement behaviors were predicted solely by subjective negative affect and negative parent behavior, respectively. Findings underscore the importance of taking context into account to understand the physiology-behavior association among youth in developmentally salient interactions, which has implications for enhancing etiological models of psychopathology.