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Effects of family cohesion and heart rate reactivity on aggressive/rule-breaking behavior and prosocial behavior in adolescence: The Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2013

Jelle Jurrit Sijtsema ,
Esther Nederhof ,
Rene Veenstra ,
Johan Ormel ,
Albertine J. Oldehinkel  and
Bruce J. Ellis
Jelle Jurrit Sijtsema*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Esther Nederhof
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Rene Veenstra
Affiliation:
University of Groningen University of Turku
Johan Ormel
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Albertine J. Oldehinkel
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Bruce J. Ellis
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jelle Jurritt Sijtsema, Interdisciplinary Centre for Psychiatric Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

The biological sensitivity to context hypothesis posits that high physiological reactivity (i.e., increases in arousal from baseline) constitutes heightened sensitivity to environmental influences, for better or worse. To test this hypothesis, we examined the interactive effects of family cohesion and heart rate reactivity to a public speaking task on aggressive/rule-breaking and prosocial behavior in a large sample of adolescents (N = 679; M age = 16.14). Multivariate analyses revealed small- to medium-sized main effects of lower family cohesion and lower heart rate reactivity on higher levels of aggressive/rule-breaking and lower levels of prosocial behavior. Although there was some evidence of three-way interactions among family cohesion, heart rate reactivity, and sex in predicting these outcome variables, these interactions were not in the direction predicted by the biological sensitivity to context hypothesis. Instead, heightened reactivity appeared to operate as a protective factor against family adversity, rather than as a susceptibility factor. The results of the present study raise the possibility that stress reactivity may no longer operate as a mechanism of differential susceptibility in adolescence.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , August 2013 , pp. 699 - 712
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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