2023 — Fear reactivity × parenting distress

Finding

Higher HR reactivity to fear predicted more prosocial behavior, lower skin-conductance reactivity predicted more conduct problems, and skin-conductance reactivity moderated associations between parental distress and child behavior.

Why it matters

Physiology is not treated only as a fixed deficit. It also functions as a marker of differential susceptibility to environmental conditions, reconnecting the mechanism program with transactional-developmental theory.

Inference boundary

Moderation clarifies conditional association; it does not by itself establish mediation or a manipulable causal mechanism.