Does Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Exacerbate Depressive Symptoms in College Students Who Experienced Parent-Child Separation? A Longitudinal Examination.

Childhood separation caused by parental migration increases the risk of suffering depressive symptoms among college students. However, most studies in this field have focused on environmental factors and largely ignored the role of physiological reactivity to stress (e.g.

Parent-Child Cohesion and College Students' Positive/Negative Affect: The Moderating Roles of Sympathetic Nervous System Activity and Parent-Child Separation Experience.

Parent-child separation caused by parental migration could have adverse effects on individuals' emotional adaptation. However, research on this topic is limited in its focus on childhood or adolescence samples and solely environmental factors, and less is known about how positive environmental factors, biological factors and parent-child separation experience interact to influence emotional adaptation in emerging adulthood. The present study addressed these issues by investigating the relationships between parent-child cohesion and positive/negative affect, and examining the moderating roles of sympathetic nervous system activity (measured by skin conductance level reactivity, SCLR) and parent-child separation experience in the relationships.