خشونت خانگی و واکنش عصب واگ به اقدام تحریک آمیز همسالان

This paper examined whether individual differences in children's vagal reactivity to peer provocation were related to domestic violence within the family. It also examined the question of whether conduct-problem children who show vagal augmentation to peer provocation come from families with high levels of domestic violence. During the peer provocation, children were expecting to interact with a difficult peer while vagal reactivity was assessed. Groups were divided into children who showed vagal augmentation and vagal suppression to the stressful peer interaction. Findings indicated that conduct-problem children who showed vagal augmentation to interpersonal challenge came from families with the highest levels of domestic violence. Vagal augmentation was also associated with a greater number of conduct-related problems for those children exposed to high levels of domestic violence. Discussion highlights the role of individual differences in physiological reactivity in understanding children's behavior problems in relation to domestic violence.

his seminal paper, Porges (1995) suggested that the tonus of the vagus nerve provides a theoretical basis for the child's ability to focus attentional processes, inhibit irrelevant activity, regulate emotion, and appropriately engage with the environment. While early work on vagal tone largely examined individual differences in baseline vagal functioning, more recently investigators have turned their attention to understanding individual differences in children's physiological response to environmental challenge (e.g., Calkins and Dedmon, 2000). In general, children's ability to suppress vagal tone has been found to be the adaptive response to challenge. In infancy, a reduction in vagal tone during challenging situations is related to better state regulation, greater self-soothing and more attentional control. For example, DeGangi et al. (1991) reported that regulatory-disordered infants with high vagal tone exhibited the least vagal suppression during cognitive challenge. Infants who exhibited relatively small reductions in vagal tone during administration of the Bayley Scales were rated by their mothers as more aggressive, more depressed, and more withdrawn at age 3 than were infants who exhibited larger vagal reductions (Porges et al., 1996). Similarly, reductions in vagal tone have also been linked with fewer behavior problems and more appropriate emotion regulation in toddlers and preschoolers (Calkins, 1997, Calkins and Dedmon, 2000 and Porges et al., 1996) and sustained attention in school-aged children (Suess et al., 1994).