David A. Sbarra

Coregulation, Dysregulation, Self-Regulation: An Integrative Analysis and Empirical Agenda for Understanding Adult Attachment, Separation, Loss, and Recovery

An integrative framework is proposed for understanding how multiple biological and psychological systems are regulated in the context of adult attachment relationships, dysregulated by separation and loss experiences, and, potentially, re-regulated through individual recovery efforts. Evidence is reviewed for a coregulatory model of normative attachment, defined as a pattern of interwoven physiology between romantic partners that results from the conditioning of biological reward systems and the emergence of felt security within adult pair bonds. The loss of coregulation can portend a state of biobehavioral dysregulation, ranging from diffuse psychophysiological arousal and disorganization to a full-blown (and highly organized) stress response. The major task for successful recovery is adopting a self-regulatory strategy that attenuates the dysregulating effects of the attachment disruption. Research evidence is reviewed across multiple levels of analysis, and the article concludes with a series of testable research questions on the interconnected nature of attachment, loss, and recovery processes.

Predicting the Onset of Emotional Recovery Following Nonmarital Relationship Dissolution: Survival Analyses of Sadness and Anger

Event onset modeling was used to investigate the time course of breakup-related affective processes. Daily emotion data were collected for 4 weeks from 58 young adults who recently experienced the dissolution of a serious romantic relationship. Using baseline data obtained from individuals in intact dating relationships, sadness and anger recovery were defined as points in time and then modeled as a function of theoretically relevant predictors using Cox’s survival analysis. Acceptance of relationship termination mediated the association between attachment security and sadness recovery. Greater levels of love, anger, and attachment preoccupation were associated with a decreased probability of sadness recovery during the study period. Attachment security was associated with an increased probability of anger recovery, whereas ongoing sadness decreased the probability of this event. Discussion centers on the differential functioning of sadness and anger as well as the need to consider emotional change as a multicomponent process.

Morningness–eveningness and depression: Preliminary evidence for the role of the behavioral activation system and positive affect

There is considerable evidence of circadian rhythm abnormalities in mood disorders. Morningness-eveningness, the degree to which people prefer organizing their activity and sleep patterns toward the morning or evening, is related to circadian phase and is associated with mood, with relatively greater psychological distress among evening types. Given that circadian rhythms may also relate to the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and positive affect (PA), but not to the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) or negative affect (NA), it was hypothesized that individual differences in BAS sensitivity and levels of PA, but not BIS and NA, would explain the association between morningness-eveningness and depression in a sample of 208 individuals with a range of depressive symptomatology. As predicted, increasing eveningness was associated with greater depression, lower BAS, and lower PA, but not directly associated with NA. Path analyses supported a model wherein morningness-eveningness is associated with depression via multi-step indirect paths including BAS-Reward Responsiveness, PA, and NA. A path between BIS and depression was distinct from the one involving morningness-eveningness. A variety of alternative path models all provided a weaker fit to the data. Thus, results were consistent with the BAS and PA mediating the effects of morningness-eveningness on depression.

Divorce and Death A Meta-Analysis and Research Agenda for Clinical, Social, and Health Psychology

Divorce is a relatively common stressful life event that is purported to increase risk for all-cause mortality. One problem in the literature on divorce and health is that it is fragmented and spread across many disciplines; most prospective studies of mortality are based in epidemiology and sociology, whereas most mechanistic studies are based in psychology. This review integrates research on divorce and death via meta-analysis and outlines a research agenda for better understanding the potential mechanisms linking marital dissolution and risk for all-cause mortality. Random effects meta-analysis with a sample of 32 prospective studies (involving more than 6.5 million people, 160,000 deaths, and over 755,000 divorces in 11 different countries) revealed a significant increase in risk for early death among separated/divorced adults in comparison to their married counterparts. Men and younger adults evidenced significantly greater risk for early death following marital separation/divorce than did women and older adults. Quantification of the overall effect size linking marital separation/divorce to risk for early death reveals a number of important research questions, and this article discusses what remains to be learned about four plausible mechanisms of action: social selection, resource disruptions, changes in health behaviors, and chronic psychological distress.

Attachment and emotion in school-aged children.

One of the primary functions of the attachment behavioral system is to regulate emotional experience under conditions of threat. Although research supports this association among infants and adults, few studies examine the relation between emotion and attachment in middle childhood. This study examined the concurrent associations among childrens attachment organization and three indices of emotion reactivity/regulation: self- and parent-assessments of emotion, neuroendocrine reactivity, and fear-potentiated startle response. Ninety-seven 8- to 12-year-old children completed the Child Attachment Interview (CAI) and a fear-potentiated startle paradigm on separate occasions, with salivary cortisol assessed before and after each assessment. Greater attachment security was related to greater child-reported positive trait- and state-level emotion, lower pre-CAI cortisol levels, higher initial startle magnitude during threat, and a faster decrease in startle magnitude during threat. The findings provide initial support that attachment security is related to select measures of emotion, though different methods of assessment yielded discrepant findings. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to theory and research examining attachment and emotion.

Assessing cross-partner associations in physiological responses via coupled oscillator models.

A host of theoretical frameworks suggest associations of physiological signals between two individuals within a romantic relationship. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence of such associations using physiological reactivity from both partners in the dyad. In this study we use measures of respiration and heart rate from romantic partners recorded across three laboratory tasks. We examine the interrelations of each measure between both dyad members using coupled linear oscillators (Boker & Nesselroade, 2002). These models were used to capture oscillations in respiration and heart rate, and to examine interdependence in the physiological signals between both partners. Results show that associations were detectable within all three tasks, with different patterns of coupling within each task. Discussion centers on ways to investigate the synchrony of physiological responses across within relationships, including the promises of and obstacles for doing so.

When Leaving Your Ex, Love Yourself Observational Ratings of Self-Compassion Predict the Course of Emotional Recovery Following Marital Separation

Divorce is a highly stressful event, and much remains to be learned about the factors that promote psychological resilience when marriages come to an end. In this study, divorcing adults (N = 109) completed a 4-min stream-of-consciousness recording about their marital separation at an initial laboratory visit. Four judges rated the degree to which participants exhibited self-compassion (defined by self-kindness, an awareness of one’s place in shared humanity, and emotional equanimity) in their recordings. Judges evidenced considerable agreement in their ratings of participants’ self-compassion, and these ratings demonstrated strong predictive utility: Higher levels of self-compassion at the initial visit were associated with less divorce-related emotional intrusion into daily life at the start of the study, and this effect persisted up to 9 months later. These effects held when we accounted for a number of competing predictors. Self-compassion is a modifiable variable, and if our findings can be replicated, they may have implications for improving the lives of divorcing adults.

The structure and process of emotional experience following nonmarital relationship dissolution: Dynamic factor analyses of love, anger, and sadness.

Dynamic factor analysis was used to examine the structure and process of daily emotions in a sample of young adults following a romantic breakup. Participants completed a daily diary for 4 weeks reporting on their love/longing for their ex-partner, anger, and sadness. Using a lag-1 process factor analysis model, results revealed that love/longing, sadness, and anger could be reliably distinguished as separate but correlated mood states in a trivariate model. Four emotional dynamics (amplification, reversing, persistence, and cooccurrence) were operationalized and investigated. Differences in these dynamics were observed on the basis of overall adjustment to the separation and attachment styles. Findings are discussed in terms of attachment and contemporary emotion theories, as well as the need to operationalize time-based affective processes.

The behavioral and emotional correlates of epilepsy in adolescence: a 7-year follow-up study ☆

This 7-year follow-up study examined the behavioral and emotional adjustment of 29 adolescents who experienced regular moderate seizures during middle childhood. Compared with national nonreferred norms on Achenbach checklists, both mothers and adolescents reported clinically significant difficulties in multiple areas regardless of current seizure status. Adolescents who currently experience regular seizures (N=10) reported no differences on psychological outcomes compared with nonseizing counterparts; in contrast, current seizure status was a strong predictor of mother-reported externalizing problems. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that feelings about having or having had a seizure disorder and mother-adolescent relationship factors were significant predictors of current adjustment over and above current seizure status. Early mother-child relationship process variables and early medical risk were not associated with current adolescent outcomes. The findings are discussed in terms of the multidetermined nature of psychological adjustment to chronic medical illness and factors that may produce versus maintain behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents with seizure disorders.

Marriage protects men from clinically meaningful elevations in C-reactive protein: results from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP).

Objective: To examine the association between marital status and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels after accounting for a range of relevant of demographic, subjective, and objective health indicators and psychological variables. Minor elevations in CRP (>3 mg/L) are a nonspecific marker of systemic inflammation and predict the future onset of cardiovascular disease. Methods: Data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a population-based study of community-dwelling older adults in the United States, were used to study CRP elevations. Home-based interviews were conducted with the entire NSHAP sample, a subset of whom provided whole blood samples for the CRP analyses. The final sample consisted of 1715 participants (n = 838 men) with an average age of 69.51 years. Multiple and logistic regression analyses were conducted, using CRP as a continuous and dichotomous outcome variable. Results: Across the entire NSHAP sample, married men demonstrated the lowest levels of CRP. After adjusting for the competing predictors, marriage remained a unique protective factor against elevated CRP for men (odds ratio = 0.56, 95% Confidence Interval = 0.39–0.79). The absolute risk reduction (for being classified in the high-risk CRP group) associated with being a married man was roughly equivalent to that observed for adults who were normotensive, nonsmokers, and those with a normal body mass index. Conclusions: Remaining married in late adulthood affords men unique and robust protection against elevated levels of CRP. The findings are discussed in terms of the pathways linking marital status and health outcomes among older adults. AR = absolute risk; ARR = absolute risk reduction; BMI = body mass index; CRP = C-reactive protein; CVD = cardiovascular disease; NSHAP = National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.