Babcock, Julia C.2023-05-282023-05-28August 2022023-05-22https://hdl.handle.net/10657/14324Cardiac vagal control, a measure of parasympathetic nervous system influence on the heart, is a widely used psychophysiological measure that has been associated with interpersonal aggression. However, the field has been limited by its use of average change scores of pre- and post- a standard stressor rather than within-person phasic changes in physiology over time. The current analysis examined phasic cardiac vagal control and observed aggression among 43 heterosexual couples with a recent history of IPV throughout a naturalistic conflict discussion task. Additionally, men completed measures of cognitive empathy and emotional regulation. Results show that cardiac vagal control increased linearly throughout the conflict. This linear increase was stronger among women whose partners were highly aggressive during the conflict. Men’s emotional regulation was positively associated with men’s cardiac vagal control and negatively associated with their partner’s cardiac vagal control. Increases in aggressive behavior during the conflict was followed by an increase in cardiac vagal control 30 seconds later for men and women. Women experienced decreases in cardiac vagal control 30 second following their partners’ increase in aggression. The within-person associations between aggression and cardiac vagal control were strongest for women whose partners were low in cognitive empathy. Results support that aggression may act as a maladaptive physiological regulation strategy, and partners of aggressive men may blunt physiological reactive via parasympathetic activation to protect against consistent stress responses to aggressive behavior from their partner.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Interpersonal aggressionCardiac vagal toneCouplesEmotion regulationEmpathy2023-05-28Thesisborn digital