Citation

Barry SA, Emhoff SM, Rabkin AN, Olezeski CL, Lehrbach M, Szczypinski BJ, Gordis EB. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2017; 26(4): 354-371.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10926771.2016.1257527

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Recent research efforts have focused on examining the relationship between environmental and physiological factors to better understand the effect that childhood chronic stress might have on adult health outcomes. This study examines the relation between childhood parental aggression exposure and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), as measured by resting skin conductance levels (SCLs). Participants (N = 155) completed retrospective self-report measures of childhood exposure to interparental aggression and physically aggressive parenting. The 2-way interaction between exposure to physically aggressive parenting and interparental aggression accounted for unique variance in adulthood SCL. Sex differences emerged in this relationship.

RESULTS suggest that the type of aggression exposure might play an important role in the relationship between stressors in youth and resting SNS activity in adulthood. Future research areas are identified, including the need to examine plasticity in the SNS depending on the age of experienced aggression and the age of intervention.

Language: en