Attachment representation, mentalization and cognitive emotion regulation strategies at school

Abstract

The present work investigates the link between attachment relationships, mentalization, and emotional regulation in 10-year-olds children. The aim is to verify if children-teacher attachment relationship could influence children s mentalization style and cognitive/emotional regulation strategies. For this purpose, 110 children were tested with the Separation Anxiety Test-School Version, the Mentalizing task and the kids version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The results show that Self-Reliance component of the attachment representation with teacher predicts both the negative scale of mentalization and the propensity to use the emotional regulation strategy of Positive Refocusing . Likewise, the Avoidance scale and the Total scale of the Separation Anxiety Test-School Version also influence the use of the cognitive emotion regulation strategy Putting into Perspective and of Positive Refocusing, respectively. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of multiple attachment theory, confirming the hypothesis that affective relationships with professional caregivers-namely school teachers-play an important role in constructing self-representation and the abilities to regulate emotions in stressful situations.