Children exposed to intimate partner violence [IPV] are at increased risk for experiencing deficits in emotional and behavioral self-regulation. One pathway between children's IPV-exposure and the development of behavior problems is through the effects of IPV on the mother-child care-giving relationship, and specifically on mother-child attunement, a process that is thought to underlie children's development of self regulation skills. Mother-child dyads that are affectively attuned have mothers who can accurately read their children's emotional states and respond to them sensitively and appropriately; children are then able to use their mothers' responding to successfully regulate their affect. Research with non-IPV exposed populations indicates that some mother-child dyads also exhibit attuned adrenocortical stress responses, and that mothers from more physiologically attuned dyads are more affectively attuned to their children. However, it remains unclear whether there is a causal relationship between these two forms of attunement. It is also unclear whether the relationship between affective and adrenocortical attunement is the same for mothers and children exposed to IPV. The current study hypothesized that affective and adrenocortical attunement may function differently in IPV-exposed dyads due to the negative psychological and physiological effects of IPV. For example, IPV may pose a threat to affective attunement by undermining the mother's sense of efficacy as a protector and nurturer for her child, and infringe upon the child's sense of emotional security in the care-giving relationship. IPV may also pose a threat to physiological attunement because it can alter women's and children's adrenocortical stress reactivity. This study sought to more fully elucidate the nature of affective and physiological attunement in IPV-exposed populations, as well as the contribution of attunement to child behavior problems. The sample included143 mother-child dyads recruited from a Midwestern Head Start program. Dyads participated in a lab stress task, providing baseline, peak and recovery cortisol measures; difference scores for the three cortisol values were used to assess adrenocortical attunement. During a reunion episode dyads were coded in-vivo for quality of affective attunement. Mothers also reported on IPV exposure, their children's behavior problems, and their own ability to mentalize about their children's emotional states. Variable-centered statistics (structural equation modeling) and person-centered statistics (predictive configural frequency analysis; PCFA) were used to examine associations between IPV, adrenocortical attunement, affective attunement and child behavior problems. Structural equation modeling indicated that IPV was not associated with adrenocortical attunement, but more IPV was associated with less affective attunement in the dyads, and more behavior problems in children. Additionally, more adrenocortical attunement predicted less affective attunement; however, affective attunement did not predict child behavior problems. Results of this study suggest that IPV exposure can interfere with successful affective attunement, and that affective attunement can also be impeded upon if dyads are too physiologically attuned, perhaps as a result of an emotional contagion effect. Although affective attunement did not predict child behavior problems, it may be important for other aspects of child social-emotional functioning, such as empathy or theory of mind skills. Additionally, structural equation modeling suggested that there are both cognitive and behavioral components of attunement. These findings have important implications for future research on attunement in IPV-exposed populations, as well as for clinical intervention with IPV-exposed mothers and their children.
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