Political Climate Stress and Positive Behavioral Synchrony in Black and Latinx Mother-Child Dyads

Contextual stress undermines the parent-child relationship, but culture-specific stressors that primarily impact families of color have been previously neglected in this research. Rooted in the Family Stress Model for minority families, the present study examines mother and child self-regulation as a moderator of the association between political climate stress (PCS) and positive behavioral synchrony (PBS) in 100 mothers and their Latinx or Black children. Mother and child self-regulation was investigated both physiologically with respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) data and via self-report. Analyses revealed child physiological self-regulation moderated the association between PCS and PBS. There was no relation between PCS and PBS at high levels of physiological self-regulation. The relation between PCS and PBS was the strongest at low levels of child physiological self-regulation. Findings highlight the role children play in combatting negative impacts of a novel salient stressor on the parent-child relationship.