Attachment insecurity, heart rate variability, and perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults

Psychological and physical factors are robustly associated with perceived social support. Drawing from the literature on attachment style in adults and psychophysiology, we examined the possibility that the interaction of attachment insecurity and resting heart rate variability (HRV) was associated with perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults living in the U.S (N = 145, Mage = 20.45) that was majority Latino (n = 77). Analyses revealed three key findings. First, in the overall sample, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were negatively associated with perceived social support, but in the Latino sample, only attachment avoidance was negatively associated with perceived social support. Second, HRV was not associated with perceived social support in the overall sample nor in the Latino sample. Third, attachment insecurity and HRV interacted to predict perceived social support only in the Latino sample such that, for those with lower levels of HRV, attachment anxiety was positively associated with perceived social support. This study underscores the importance of examining both psychological and physiological processes with careful consideration of ethnicity/culture in order to better understand perceived social support

Intercultural Romantic Relationships: The Role of Attachment Insecurity

Romantic relationships can promote better mental and physical health, and thus the processes linked to these outcomes are important to examine. The increased prevalence of intercultural romantic relationships—made up of romantic partners who report having different cultural backgrounds (e.g., differences in ethnicity, race, religion)—offers the opportunity to understand a type of romantic relationship that is not well-studied. By advancing the study of intercultural romantic relationships, science can better determine the generalizability of well-studied relationship processes and may uncover relationship processes that are distinct to intercultural romantic relationships. The study of intercultural romantic relationships also has implications for intergroup relations, a topic of enduring societal importance. The goal of this dissertation was to examine intercultural romantic relationship initiation and maintenance, with particular attention to how specific psychological processes compared to intracultural romantic relationships—made up of romantic partners who report sharing the same cultural background. In Study 1, using self-report survey data from one partner, I examined whether attachment insecurity was associated with the likelihood that individuals had initiated an intercultural romantic relationship in the past or would initiate one in the future. I found that attachment avoidance was associated with a lower likelihood that individuals initiated an intercultural romantic relationship in the past but also that current relationship status was important for this association. In Study 2, using self-report survey data from one partner, I examined whether attachment insecurity was associated with two indices of relationship quality (commitment, and satisfaction) and whether these associations varied as a function of intercultural romantic relationship status. I found that higher levels of attachment anxiety were associated with higher relationship commitment but lower relationship satisfaction. I also found that higher levels of attachment avoidance were associated with lower relationship commitment and satisfaction. These effects did not vary as a function of intercultural romantic relationship status. In Study 3, using self-report data from both partners, I examined whether actor and partner attachment insecurity were associated with actor and partner relationship quality (commitment and satisfaction) and whether these associations differed between the overall sample and intercultural and intracultural couple subsamples. I also examined whether actor and partner attachment insecurity were associated with actor and partner conflict management and whether these associations differed between the overall sample and intercultural and intracultural couple subsamples. These analyses did not yield a consistent pattern of effects, but interesting ancillary findings did emerge. Intercultural couples reported higher levels of relationship commitment but did not have mean differences on any other factors. Taken together, these three studies contribute to the literature on intercultural romantic relationships specifically and relationship science generally

Accuracy and confidence in perceptions of targets’ attachment to former partners: Do judges vary as a function of individual differences in attachment orientation?

This study builds on prior research by examining the degree to which individual differences in judges' attachment orientations predict their accuracy and confidence in rating targets' ongoing attachment to former partners. Targets were recently separated/divorced adults (N = 132) who described their separation experiences. Naive judges (N-study (1) = 93, N-study (2) = 296) read transcripts of targets' separation narratives and rated targets' strength of ongoing attachment to their former partners. Judges' high accuracy did not vary by judges' attachment orientations. However, greater judge avoidance was associated with lower confidence in ratings. Greater attachment anxiety was linked with weaker associations between accuracy and confidence. We discuss findings in terms of their potential implications for partner selection and future studies that can assess this link. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.24 month embargo; available online 18 January 2019.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Measuring and modeling the lifetime of nitrous oxide including its variability.

Nitrous oxide lifetime is computed empirically from MLS satellite dataEmpirical N2O lifetimes compared with models including interannual variabilityResults improve values for present anthropogenic and preindustrial emissions

Measuring and modeling the lifetime of nitrous oxide including its variability

The lifetime of nitrous oxide, the third‐most‐important human‐emitted greenhouse gas, is based to date primarily on model studies or scaling to other gases. This work calculates a semiempirical lifetime based on Microwave Limb Sounder satellite measurements of stratospheric profiles of nitrous oxide, ozone, and temperature; laboratory cross‐section data for ozone and molecular oxygen plus kinetics for O((1)D); the observed solar spectrum; and a simple radiative transfer model. The result is 116 ± 9 years. The observed monthly‐to‐biennial variations in lifetime and tropical abundance are well matched by four independent chemistry‐transport models driven by reanalysis meteorological fields for the period of observation (2005–2010), but all these models overestimate the lifetime due to lower abundances in the critical loss region near 32 km in the tropics. These models plus a chemistry‐climate model agree on the nitrous oxide feedback factor on its own lifetime of 0.94 ± 0.01, giving N(2)O perturbations an effective residence time of 109 years. Combining this new empirical lifetime with model estimates of residence time and preindustrial lifetime (123 years) adjusts our best estimates of the human‐natural balance of emissions today and improves the accuracy of projected nitrous oxide increases over this century