الگوهای دلبستگی و استراتژی های تنظیم احساسات در سال دوم

With the aim of studying the relationship between methods of emotion regulation and quality of attachment we examined 39 infants with different patterns of attachment, of whom 20 were classified as secure (B), 12 as avoidant (A) and 7 as resistant (C), assessing the regulatory strategies adopted by them during the Strange Situation at 13 months. Secure infants used strategies of positive social engagement more than insecure avoidant infants, while resistant infants displayed greater negative social engagement and less object orientation than the other two groups. Avoidant infants adopted positive and negative hetero-regulatory strategies less than the other groups, also differing from resistant infants in their greater use of object regulatory strategies. There were no significant differences as regards self-comforting regulation. Thus, the findings showed how the most significant differences to emerge between the groups concerned hetero-regulatory strategies, developed by the infant in interaction with attachment figures, and regulatory strategies oriented towards objects. Further analysis showed how the use by part of each attachment group of the emotion regulation strategies varies, differentiating the episodes of the SSP according to their level of stress.

It is well-known that emotion regulation is an important objective for the socio-emotional development of an infant (Bridges and Grolnick, 1995, Calkins, 1994, Sroufe, 1995, Tronick, 1989 and Tronick, 2007). Although conceptualizations of emotion regulation may differ (Campos et al., 2004, Cole et al., 2004, Eisenberg and Spinrad, 2004, Gross and Thompson, 2007 and Thompson, 1994), many authors agree in considering it a mix of “physiological, behavioral and cognitive processes that enables individuals to modulate the experience and the expression of positive and negative emotions” (Bridges, Denham, & Ganiban, 2004, p. 340; Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994). This skill allows an individual to adapt in interacting with the environment (Calkins and Hill, 2007 and Campos et al., 2004) making it possible to maintain behavioral organization in the face of high levels of tension, not simply concerning the regulation of negative emotions, but leading more broadly to “initiation and maintenance of emotional states, both positive and negative” (Bridges et al., 2004, p. 344). As is well-known this regulatory capacity develops within the ambit of the attachment relations which the infant experiences in his first years (Cassidy, 1994 and Sroufe, 1995), as these relations can be considered specific methods of social regulation of the emotions (Coan, 2008).

The results show specific differences in the emotion regulation strategies used by the infants during the Strange Situation Procedure according to the quality of their attachment to their mother. On the basis of the available data we may first of all observe that the differences between the three groups of attachment are constituted by both positive and negative hetero-regulatory emotion regulation strategies and by those based on orientation towards objects. The self-regulatory strategies such as self-vocalization and searching mother when absent also differ in the three groups unlike the self-comforting strategies. So the hypothesis that there would be more negative hetero-regulatory strategies in resistant infants than in the other groups and fewer positive and negative hetero-regulatory strategies in avoidant infants was confirmed. The use of strategies oriented towards objects was also more frequent in avoidant infants and in secure infants than in resistant infants, also confirming our hypothesis. However, there are no significant differences between the three groups for what concerns regulation focused on self-comforting as, on the other hand, has been shown by other research which ascribes this strategy above all to avoidant infants with respect to fathers (Diener et al., 2002) and to resistant infants with respect to mothers (Braungart & Stifter, 1991). This, together with data relating to differences in hetero-regulatory strategies, could be explained by hypothesizing that the various attachment patterns exert their influence above all on the development of hetero-regulatory strategies used with the adult and which have developed in the relationship with attachment figures, a relationship which consolidates starting from the second 6-month period of the first year (Marvin & Britner, 2008). At the same time, orientation towards objects, more frequent in avoidant infants and less frequent in resistant infants, with secure infants in an intermediate position, may also be seen in relation to the quality of attachment. The self-comforting self-regulation strategies (finger and hand in the mouth, touching the hair, ears, etc.) which appear earlier, around the age of 3 months and which are therefore available before consolidation of attachment bonds (Bridges and Grolnick, 1995 and Tronick, 1989), do not appear, however, to be affected by the different quality of attachment. Self-comforting regulatory strategies, in fact, seem to be homogeneous in the three groups unlike hetero-regulatory strategies centred on engagement with the adult and object relation strategy and thus not affected by the type of attachment to the mother. However, other self-regulation strategies such as self-vocalization and searching for mother when absent which can be considered more mature self-regulatory strategies than the earlier self-comforting (Bridges & Grolnick, 1995), differ in the three groups, and thus seem connected to the type of attachment. In fact the first is completely absent in resistant infants but present in secure and avoidant infants, while the second (which involves the ability to search for the mother when absent) is more present in secure infants than in avoidant infants. On the whole, data analysis seems to confirm the hypotheses formulated in the context of attachment theory (Cassidy, 1994, Kobak and Sceery, 1988, Siegel, 1999 and Sroufe, 1995), whereby the attachment patterns which the infant constructs in the ambit of his relationship with parents and caregivers, reflects the strategies of emotion regulation which the infant is developing in the context of such dyadic relationships, in order to create forms of autonomous regulation based on the internalization of such strategies. In this perspective, on the basis of the available data a profile can be drawn up for each group in relation to the regulatory strategies adopted more frequently than others. This profile is enriched by analysis of the variations of regulation strategies within each group according to the type of episode considered. On the whole secure infants appear to use object regulatory strategies and negative hetero-regulatory strategy in a more modulated fashion than the other groups, coming between avoidant and resistant infants; in addition they also communicate their requests for emotion regulation to the adult (hetero-regulation) using more positive strategies than avoidant infants. Use of this strategy does not vary in the different types of grouped episodes (pre-separation, separation, reunion), indicating the ability of the secure infant to maintain a positive emotional state towards the adult even in conditions of high stress. The Negative Social Engagement (Total) hetero-regulatory strategy, however, increases significantly in episodes of separation, to decrease in episodes of reunion, indicating the ability of secure infants to adapt to different levels of stress. Similarly, self-comforting strategies appear to be activated more by secure infants in episodes of separation than in episodes of pre-separation. Object Orientation Strategies do not vary according to the type of episode. Secure infants are also able to use mature self-regulatory strategies, such as searching for their mother when absent more than avoidant infants, as well as engaging in self-vocalization, when both adults are absent (see 6th Strange Situation episode), more than resistant infants. The mix of strategies used by the secure infants of our study confirms the ability to maintain an open and flexible attitude towards both positive and negative emotions which was first attributed to them by Bowlby (1991) and then by other researchers (Cassidy, 1994, Main, 1995 and Main, 2000). Although secure infants maintain in all episodes a positive attitude towards the adult, they are also able to express their requests for regulation through crying and protesting, demonstrating negative emotions in the more stressful situations of separation. This ability could be linked to their experience of the mother in the first year as a reliable and available figure with regard to their requests for emotion regulation and also as being able to accept the expression of both positive and negative emotions (Bowlby, 1991 and Main, 1995). On the whole resistant infants use hetero-regulatory strategies aimed at the adult centred mainly on the expression of negative emotions (crying, negative vocalization) more than the other groups, adopting this strategy more in the episodes of separation. They also use, in general, more positive behavior towards the mother than avoidant infants do, activating on the whole more positive behavior in episodes of pre-separation and reunion. Furthermore they also use orientation towards objects to overcome stress less than the other groups and without significant variations in the different types of episodes. Furthermore, they show a higher number of physiological stress indicators than the other groups. The scarce use of regulation through objects and the greater use of negative engagement seems to confirm the hypothesis whereby resistant infants maximize attachment signals to the caregiver, minimizing exploration of the environment (Cassidy, 1994, Main, 1995 and Main, 2000). It has been hypothesized in this regard that insecure resistant infants develop hetero-regulation strategies aimed at activating the attention of the mother, probably with a mother who has been inconsistently responsive in the first year with respect to the infant's emotional communication and requests for regulation (Main, 1995 and Main, 2000). Cassidy and Berlin (1994) hypothesize that the mothers of resistant infants in the first year are intermittently responsive and, at the same time, interfere with the exploratory activities of the infant, generating in the infant hyper-vigilant behavior with regard to the mother and making them poorly competent in exploring the environment. Unlike resistant infants, avoidant infants use more regulation through orientation towards objects, even more so in episodes of separation. At the same time, they use on the whole hetero-regulatory strategies centred both on behavior aimed at the positive and negative social engagement of the adult less than resistant and secure infants. Comparing the different types of episodes it is interesting to note that positive and negative social engagement remain constant in pre-separation, separation and reunion episodes. This is particularly significant as it indicates that avoidant infants do not use hetero-regulatory strategies in conditions of stress, which presupposes experience of maternal reliability. In such conditions they use, on the other hand, object orientation (more frequent in episodes of separation than in those of pre-separation and reunion). It may be hypothesized, in agreement with Fonagy (Fonagy, Steele, Steele, Moran, & Higgitt, 1992) and Main, 1995 and Main, 2000, that the avoidant infants in our study developed strategies of self-distraction aimed at the environment, having inhibited the expression of their emotions in the face of a non-responsive and rejecting mother during the first year with regard to their signals of attachment and, therefore, also of the expression of emotions correlated to such signals. In this regard our study reveals that avoidant infants display not only fewer negative emotions compared to the other groups as observed by other studies (Cassidy & Kobak, 1988), but also less positive engagement, a result which is, however, not shown by other empirical research. It is also important to note that such minimization appears to be used selectively towards the mother rather than the stranger, as demonstrated by the fact that the difference with respect to the other two attachment groups, considering the two categories of positive social engagement with the mother and with the stranger, appears with the mother but not with the stranger.