This research will test the cognitive, autonomic, and emotional processes that foster malfunctioning caregiving systems. Past research has demonstrated that women with low perceived control as caregivers are more likely to show autonomic arousal and emotionally negative reactions when attempting to cope with "difficult" children. In reciprocal fashion, children within such systems are likely to show response patterns that maintain the beliefs of caregivers. For example, they may show self- protective avoidance behaviors that are readily (mis)interpreted by caregivers as showing defiance. Research proposed here extends this line of inquiry in two directions: Do low power (caregiving) beliefs act as automatically-accessed "scripts"? The prediction is tested that women with low perceived control as caregivers readily bring to mind "threat- oriented" ideation, i.e., they easily interpret child behavior as challenging their fragile sense of their own control. Do the beliefs of children about social interactions influence their perception and response to the expressive behaviors of others? The prediction is tested that children with low perceived control in their social environment are likely to manifest autonomic arousal, poor emotion regulation, and inaccurate processing of ongoing events when the expressive cues of others suggests the presence of "threat." Responses of children (aged 5 to 10) are measured in reaction to a video that includes cues to potential threat (child having routine medical exam). Children with low perceived control are expected to be hypervigilant to subtle cues to "threat" (e.g., a worried expression shown by the videotaped child); they are also expected to show deterioration in their perception of and response to witnessed events. In a second study, the effects of socially empowering experiences will be tested to determine the extent to which they buffer against dysfunctional responses to "threat." Implications are for feedback loops that foster and maintain dysfunctional information-processing patterns and family systems. This research will provide information on controlling mechanisms within such systems, as well as the extent to which such mechanisms are subject to change as a function of altered experience.*** //
