Heart Rate Variability as a psychophysiological biomarker of affect regulation in adolescents

Adolescence has been described as an important developmental stage in the acquisition of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Evolutionary psychology models propose the threat, drive and soothing systems as the major regulators of emotion, allowing the individual/species to survive. Heart Rate (HR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) have been described as specific and accurate psychophysiological biomarkers of emotion regulation patterns. Moreover, individuals with high HRV show a more adjusted pattern of emotion regulation than individuals with low HRV (young offenders). This project intends to develop and validate audio scenarios, able to activate the three different emotion regulation systems and explore gender differences in HR/HRV patterns between community adolescents, as well as to test differences between male young offenders and community male adolescents. HR/HRV will also be explored as a psychotherapeutic physiological outcome measure of Compassion Focused Therapy for the forensic sample in an RCT.