Data from: Getting to the heart of emotion regulation in youth: the role of interoceptive sensitivity, heart rate variability, and parental psychopathology

Emotion regulation and associated autonomic activation develop throughout
childhood and adolescence under the influence of the family environment.
Specifically, physiological indicators of autonomic nervous system
activity such as interoceptive sensitivity and vagally mediated heart rate
variability (HRV) can inform on emotion regulation. Although the effect of
parental emotion socialization on emotion regulation appears to be
influenced by autonomic processes, research on physiological regulation
and the influence of parental factors remains scarce. This study
investigated the relationship between self-reported habitual emotion
regulation strategies and HRV at rest as well as interoceptive sensitivity
in forty-six youngsters (27 female; age: M = 13.00, SD = 2.13). Secondly,
the association between these autonomic correlates and parental
psychopathology was also studied. Whereas better interoceptive sensitivity
was related to reduced maladaptive emotion regulation, specifically
rumination, high HRV was related to more use of external emotion
regulation strategies (i.e., support seeking). In addition, increased HRV
and decreased interoceptive sensitivity were associated with maternal
internalizing and there was evidence for a possible mediation effect of
HRV in the relationship between maternal internalizing and child external
emotion regulation. This study elucidates the link between cognitive
emotion regulation strategies and underlying physiological regulation in
adolescents but also indicates a putative influence of maternal
internalizing symptoms on emotion regulation in their offspring.