Mother-child autonomic nervous system interaction as an indication of parental stress: 24-hour cross recurrence plot analysis

Mothers and children interact through behaviors and mutual physiological signals. Recent research has suggested that physiological interactions are sensitive biomarkers for parenting challenges such as childcare stress. Most studies have focused on short-term, activity-based interactions. However, few studies have examined longer timescale data, such as interactions containing circadian rhythms, which are closely associated with stress. This study aimed to explore the link between childcare stress and mother-child autonomic nervous system activities in daily interactions using 24-hour at-home data. Cross-recurrence plots were used to quantify interactive patterns to reflect the rich nonlinear dynamics of autonomic nervous system signals and the complex interplay between mothers and children. The relationships between quantified low-dimensional cross-recurrence plot representations and parenting stress were evaluated through multiple regression analysis. The cross-recurrence plots effectively quantified complex, nonlinear, day-to-night interactions of mother-child autonomous nervous system activities and significantly predicted maternal parenting stress, offering novel insights into daily parental stress dynamics beyond recurrence plots that merely quantify the activities from individual systems.