The objective of the current study was to systematically review the available literature on the relation between behavioral and cardiac indicators used to measure distress in toddlerhood. After ascertaining the eligibility of 2,424 articles through a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) guided search process, 22 articles (N = 2,504) that investigated associations between behavioral and cardiac indicators of distress in toddlerhood were identified. The narrative synthesis described the overall relation (direction [positive, negative], strength [Cohen’s D]) between behavioral and cardiac indicators and was organized by cardiac indicator (i.e., heart rate [HR], heart period, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period) and type of behavior measured (i.e., coding for expressed emotion behaviors vs. emotion regulation behaviors). Methodological characteristics (i.e., timing of measurement for behavioral and cardiac indicators [concurrent, predictive], length of measurement epochs, inclusion of covariates and moderators) were also described. HR was consistently positively (D = .05 to .54) related to expressed emotion behaviors. No other cardiac and behavioral indicators were consistently related. Methodological differences related to behavioral and cardiac indicators utilized, timing of measurement, and length of measurement epochs may be responsible for heterogeneity in findings. The findings suggest that researchers might get divergent results depending on whether distress is measured with cardiac or behavioral indicators of distress in toddlerhood. Suggestions for future psychophysiological research with young children are offered.

中文翻译：

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幼儿窘迫行为和心脏指标的融合：系统评价和叙述性综合

本研究的目的是系统地复习可用于衡量幼儿期窘迫的行为和心脏指标之间关系的文献。在通过系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目（PRISMA）和PROSPERO（系统评价国际前瞻性登记册）指导的搜索过程确定了2,424条的资格后，调查了行为与心脏病之间的关联的22条文章（N = 2,504）确定了幼儿期的困扰指标。叙述性综合描述了行为指标和心脏指标之间的整体关系（方向[正，负]，强度[Cohen D]），并按心脏指标（即心率[HR]，心律周期，呼吸窦性心律不齐，射血前期）和测量的行为类型（即，对表达的情绪行为与情绪调节行为进行编码）。还描述了方法学特征（即，行为和心脏指标的测量时机[并发，预测]，测量时期的长短，协变量和主持人的纳入）。HR与所表达的情绪行为始终呈正相关（D = 0.05至0.54）。没有其他心脏和行为指标持续相关。与使用的行为和心脏指标，测量时间和测量时期的长度有关的方法学差异可能是结果异质性的原因。研究结果表明，研究人员可能会得出不同的结果，具体取决于是否使用心脏疾病或幼儿期的行为指标来衡量痛苦。提供了有关带幼儿进行未来心理生理研究的建议。