Dynamics of attachment and emotion regulation in daily life : uni- and bidirectional associations

Attachment theory proposes that the activation of the attachment system enacts emotion regulation (ER) to maintain security or cope with insecurity. However, the effects of ER on attachment states and their bidirectional influences remain poorly understood. In this ecological momentary assessment study, we examined the dynamics between attachment and ER. We hypothesised that attachment states and ER influence each other through time. Specifically, we hypothesised bidirectional short-term cycles between state attachment security and reappraisal, state attachment anxiety and rumination, and state attachment avoidance and suppression. We also tested how trait attachment is related to state attachment and ER. One hundred twenty-two participants (M-age = 26.4) completed the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised and reported state attachment and ER seven times daily for seven days. The results were only partly consistent with our cycle hypotheses yet revealed a cycle between low state attachment security and rumination that was attenuated by reappraisal. Moreover, rumination and suppression predicted increased insecure states, and reappraisal predicted increased secure and insecure states. Finally, trait attachment showed associations with state attachment and ER. Our study suggests regulatory dynamics between attachment and ER and opens important questions about their functional relationship in maintaining attachment-related behavioural patterns and emotional well-being.Peer reviewe

Adolescent attachment to parents and peers in singletons and twins born with assisted and natural conception

STUDY QUESTION Does adolescent attachment to parents and peers differ between singletons and twins born with ART or natural conception (NC)? SUMMARY ANSWER Adolescent attachment anxiety with the father was higher among NC singletons than among ART and NC twins, whereas attachment avoidance with the father was higher in ART singletons than in NC singletons and NC twins. No differences were found in attachment to the mother, best friend or romantic partner. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Most studies have not found differences between ART and NC singletons in parent-adolescent relationships, but twin relationships may be more at risk. No previous study has examined all four groups in the same study, or specifically looked at attachment relationships. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION This was an 18-year, prospective and controlled longitudinal study with families of 496 ART singletons, 101 ART twin pairs, 476 NC singletons and 22 NC twin pairs. Families were recruited during the second trimester of pregnancy; the ART group was recruited from five infertility clinics in Finland and the control group was recruited from a hospital outpatient clinic during a routine visit. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Mothers and fathers gave background information for this study during pregnancy, and during the child's first year and early school age (7-8 years). For the ART group, infertility characteristics and prenatal medical information was also obtained from the patient registry of the infertility clinics. Children (originally 50% girls) filled in electronic questionnaires related to their attachment to mother, father, best friend and romantic partner (Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures) at 17-19 years of age. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Adolescent attachment anxiety to father was higher in NC singletons than in ART twins, P = 0.004 and marginally higher than in NC twins, P = 0.06. Adolescent attachment avoidance to father was higher in ART singletons than in NC singletons, P = 0.006 and marginally higher than in NC twins, P = 0.055. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The sample size was small especially in the NC twin group and there was drop-out over the 18-year time period, especially among boys and families with lower parental education level. The study only included native Finnish-speaking families. The results could differ in a more diverse population. ART singletons were younger and had fewer siblings than ART twins and NC children, and ART and NC twins had more newborn health risks than ART and NC singletons. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The study adds to a growing body of evidence that neither ART treatments nor being a twin places mother-child relationships or peer relationships at long-term risk. However, in our study, which was the first to examine both ART and twinhood simultaneously, we found that there may be more problems in father-adolescent relationships, but only in ART singletons and only related to attachment avoidance. Our findings suggest that men, as well as women, should receive enough support in pre- and peri-natal health care during and after infertility treatments. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was funded by Academy of Finland (grant number 2501308988), the Juho Vainio Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The authors report no conflict of interest.Peer reviewe

Negative emotional stimuli reduce contextual cueing but not response times in inefficient search

In visual search, previous work has shown that negative stimuli narrow the focus of attention and speed reaction times (RTs). This paper investigates these two effects by first asking whether negative emotional stimuli narrow the focus of attention to reduce the learning of a display context in a contextual cueing task and, second, whether exposure to negative stimuli also reduces RTs in inefficient search tasks. In Experiment 1, participants viewed either negative or neutral images (faces or scenes) prior to a contextual cueing task. In a typical contextual cueing experiment, RTs are reduced if displays are repeated across the experiment compared with novel displays that are not repeated. The results showed that a smaller contextual cueing effect was obtained after participants viewed negative stimuli than when they viewed neutral stimuli. However, in contrast to previous work, overall search RTs were not faster after viewing negative stimuli (Experiments 2 to 4). The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional content on visual processing and the ability to use scene context to help facilitate search

The influence of color on snake detection in visual search in human children

It is well known that adult humans detect snakes as targets more quickly than flowers as the targets and that how rapidly they detect a snake picture does not differ whether the images are in color or gray-scale, whereas they find a flower picture more rapidly when the images are in color than when the images are gray-scale. In the present study, a total of 111 children were presented with 3-by-3 matrices of images of snakes and flowers in either color or gray-scale displays. Unlike the adults reported on previously, the present participants responded to the target faster when it was in color than when it was gray-scale, whether the target was a snake or a flower, regardless of their age. When detecting snakes, human children appear to selectively attend to their color, which would contribute to the detection being more rapidly at the expense of its precision

Maintaining Force Control Despite Changes in Emotional Context Engages Dorsomedial Prefrontal and Premotor Cortex

Viewing emotional as compared with neutral images results in an increase in force production. An emotion-driven increase in force production has been associated with increased brain activity in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and primary motor cortex (M1). In many instances, however, force production must be held constant despite changes in emotional state and the neural circuits underlying this form of control are not well understood. To address this issue, we designed a task in which subjects viewed pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral images during a force production task. We measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging and examined functional connectivity between emotion and motor circuits. Despite similar force performance across conditions, increased brain activity was evidenced in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and left ventral premotor cortex (PMv) when force was produced during emotional as compared with neutral conditions. Connectivity analyses extended these findings by demonstrating a task-dependent functional circuit between dmPFC and ventral and dorsal portions of premotor cortex. Our findings show that when force production has to be consistent despite changes in emotional context, a functional circuit between dmPFC and PMv and dorsal premotor cortex is engaged

Premenstrual enhancement of snake detection in visual search in healthy women

It is well known that adult humans detect images of snakes as targets more quickly than images of flowers as targets whether the images are in color or gray-scale. When such visual searches were performed by a total of 60 adult premenopausal healthy women in the present study to examine whether their performance would fluctuate across the phases of the menstrual cycle, snake detection was found to become temporarily enhanced during the luteal phase as compared to early or late follicular phases. This is the first demonstration of the existence of within-individual variation of the activity of the fear module, as a predictable change in cognitive strength, which appears likely to be due to the hormonal changes that occur in the menstrual cycle of healthy women

Fear makes you stronger: responding to feared animal targets in visual search

To investigate whether fear affects the strength with which responses are made, 12 animal-fearful individuals (five snake fearful and seven spider fearful) were instructed to decide as quickly as possible whether an animal target from a deviant category was present in a 3 × 4 item (animal) search array. The animal categories were snakes, spiders, and cats. Response force was measured, in newtons. The results showed that the strength of the response was greater when the feared animal served as the target than when it served as the distractors. This finding was corroborated by evoked heart rate changes to the stimuli. Our findings strengthen the argument that focused attention on a single, feared animal can lead to increases in manual force

Signs of Disorganization in Middle Childhood Attachment Narratives

Children with disorganized attachment are not a unified category. This study examined different signs of disorganization in school-age children’s attachment narratives, whether the signs clustered into specific profiles of disorganization, and if the profiles were associated with children’s continuous attachment ratings and mental health. Our binational sample of 8- to 12-year-old children (n = 33) had disorganization as their primary attachment classification. Attachment was measured with the Story Stem procedure and mental health symptoms were measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Fifteen different signs of disorganization were found that clustered into four unique profiles distinguished by chaotic-frightening, hostile-punitive, caregiving, and dissociative signs. Children with more punitive and frightening signs in their profiles displayed higher attachment disorganization and ambivalence, whereas caregiving and dissociative profiles were associated with attachment avoidance, and the dissociative profile also with more mental health symptoms. Subtypes of middle childhood disorganization need more research and are also important to recognize in clinical practice