ABSTRACT
The goal of the present study was to examine how quality of the child-caregiver attachment relationship related to children's cardiac vagal reactivity in response to a novel social stressor. Children's (N = 48; M age = 3 years 9 months) cardiac data were collected as they participated in an ambiguous and potentially threatening social situation together with their mothers. Their degree of behavioral inhibition also was observed. Attachment classifications were assessed separately. Children classified as Secure showed vagal withdrawal from baseline to the stressor, whereas children classified as Ambivalent did not show vagal withdrawal in response to the stressor. There was a marginally significant moderation of attachment-related differences in vagal withdrawal by level of behavioral inhibition. Among highly behaviorally inhibited children, those classified as Ambivalent demonstrated little or no vagal withdrawal compared to their Secure counterparts. In contrast, no attachment-related differences were found among those who appeared less behaviorally inhibited. Findings are discussed in relation to children's emerging self-regulation skills in the context of their attachment relationship.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior , Mother-Child Relations , Object Attachment , Stress, Psychological/physiopathology , Vagus Nerve/physiology , Child, Preschool , Cross-Sectional Studies , Electrocardiography , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia/physiology , TemperamentABSTRACT
Attachment anxiety has been associated with a hyperactivating response to threat. A modified emotional Stroop task was used to investigate temporal characteristics of the threat response by assessing response latencies to interpersonally threatening words (immediate interference) and two directly subsequent neutral filler words (delayed interference). Greater immediate and delayed interference to threatening words was observed (n = 125), with higher levels of attachment anxiety associated with immediate interference to threatening cues, and lower levels with delayed interference. Thus, attachment anxiety was related to the speed at which moderate perceived threat disrupted ongoing processes under top-down attentional control. Furthermore, top-down attentional control moderated the extent to which immediate or delayed interference was observed. Among participants who demonstrated relatively stronger top-down attentional control, immediate and delayed interference to threatening cues was minimal, suggesting that results involving emotional Stroop interference were primarily attributable to participants with relatively weaker top-down attentional control. The implications of these findings are considered within the broader context of performance-based and neuroimaging research, with suggestions for future applied research.
