Browsing by Author "Sellers, Tabitha"
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Item Adapting psychophysiological data collection for COVID-19: The “Virtual Assessment” model(Infant Mental Health Journal, 2021-12-21) Tabachnick, Alexandra R.; Sellers, Tabitha; Margolis, Emma; Labella, Madelyn; Neff, Dylan; Crowell, Sheila; Raby, K. Lee; Saenz, Celine; Conradt, Elisabeth; Dozier, MaryThe COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted research activities globally. Researchers need safe and creative procedures to resume data collection, particularly for projects evaluating infant mental health interventions. Remote research is uniquely challenging for psychophysiological data collection, which typically requires close contact between researchers and participants as well as technical equipment frequently located in laboratory settings. In accordance with public health guidance, we adapted procedures and developed novel protocols for a “virtual assessment” in which women and infants provided behavioral and psychophysiological data from their own homes while researchers coordinated remotely. Data collected at virtual visits included video-recorded parent–child interactions and autonomic nervous system data. Adaptations were designed to optimize safety and data quality while minimizing participant burden. In the current paper, we describe these adaptations and present data evaluating their success across two sites in the United States (University of Delaware and University of Utah), focusing specifically on autonomic nervous system data collected during the well-validated Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). We also discuss advantages and challenges of translating traditional lab procedures into the virtual assessment model. Ultimately, we hope that disseminating these procedures will help other researchers resume safe data collection related to infant mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.Item Effects of child protective services involvement on developmental trajectories of respiratory sinus arrhythmia(University of Delaware, 2023) Sellers, TabithaRespiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a widely used biomarker of physiological regulation, such that higher levels of resting RSA are positively associated with behavioral regulation and negatively associated with psychopathology. Resting RSA increases across early childhood and typically remains stable across middle childhood to late adolescence for typically developing children. However, it is unclear whether early adverse experiences, such as child maltreatment, are associated with atypical developmental trajectories of resting RSA. The present study examined experience of CPS involvement as a predictor of change in resting RSA from middle childhood to adolescence. Further, change in resting RSA was examined as a predictor of adolescent emotion reactivity and regulation. Data from a randomized clinical trial were utilized resulting in a sample of 183 children (118 of which had histories of early maltreatment risk) who had completed 9-, 13-, and 14-year follow-up assessments where resting RSA and self-reported emotional reactivity and emotion regulation were measured. Structural equation modeling was used to calculate change in RSA from ages 9 to 13 as a latent change variable. Results revealed that history of child maltreatment marginally predicted change in RSA from 9- to 13-years-old. Change in RSA predicted emotional reactivity at age 13 and RSA measured at age 9 predicted emotion regulation at age 14. Findings suggest that early adversity may play a role in the development of RSA and individual differences in developmental trajectories of RSA are predictive of adolescent emotional functioning.