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Parenting style moderates the effects of exposure to natural disaster-related stress on the neural development of reactivity to threat and reward in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2019

Ellen M. Kessel ,
Brady D. Nelson ,
Megan Finsaas ,
Autumn Kujawa ,
Alexandria Meyer ,
Evelyn Bromet ,
Gabrielle A. Carlson ,
Greg Hajcak ,
Roman Kotov  and
Daniel N. Klein
Ellen M. Kessel*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Brady D. Nelson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Megan Finsaas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Autumn Kujawa
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Alexandria Meyer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Evelyn Bromet
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Gabrielle A. Carlson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Greg Hajcak
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Roman Kotov
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY, USA
Daniel N. Klein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Ellen M. Kessel, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Little is known about the effect of natural disasters on children's neural development. Additionally, despite evidence that stress and parenting may both influence the development of neural systems underlying reward and threat processing, few studies have brought together these areas of research. The current investigation examined the effect of parenting styles and hurricane-related stress on the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children. Approximately 8 months before and 9 months after Hurricane Sandy, 74 children experiencing high and low levels of hurricane-related stress completed tasks that elicited the reward positivity and error-related negativity, event-related potentials indexing sensitivity to reward and threat, respectively. At the post-Hurricane assessment, children completed a self-report questionnaire to measure promotion- and prevention-focused parenting styles. Among children exposed to high levels of hurricane-related stress, lower levels of promotion-focused, but not prevention-focused, parenting were associated with a reduced post-Sandy reward positivity. In addition, in children with high stress exposure, greater prevention-focused, but not promotion-focused, parenting was associated with a larger error-related negativity after Hurricane Sandy. These findings highlight the need to consider contextual variables such as parenting when examining how exposure to stress alters the development of neural reactivity to reward and threat in children.

Keywords

brain developmentevent-related potentialsnatural disasterparenting
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 1589 - 1598
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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