The longitudinal negative impact of early stressful events on emotional and physical well-being: The buffering role of cardiac vagal development

Early stressful events negatively affect emotional and physical well-being. Cardiac vagal tone (CVT), which is associated with better emotional and physical well-being, usually gradually increase in early childhood. Nonetheless, children's CVT developmental trajectories are greatly variable, such that CVT can increase or decrease across the years. The present study examines the longitudinal effects of early stressful events and the role of 4 years CVT developmental trajectory on children's emotional and physical well-being. Forty-two 4-year-old children were enrolled. Number of stressful events and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were collected at T1. ECG was registered again after one (T2), two (T3) and three (T4) years. Children's emotional and physical well-being were assessed at T4 through the Child Health and Illness Profile – Child Edition (CHIP–CE). CVT development was calculated as the angular coefficient, reflecting the developmental trajectory of CVT across the four timepoints. Results yielded that higher experienced stressful events predicted poorer emotional and physical well-being after 4 years. The interaction between the number of stressful events and CVT development emerged on physical well-being. Early stressful events negatively affect long-term children's emotional and physical well-being while a positive CVT development seems to mitigate the negative effects of early stressful events on physical well-being.