Attachment theory posits that the quality of early caregiver relationships provides the foundation for how people regulate emotions across their lifespan (Bowlby, 1969, 1973; Cassidy, 1994; Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986).
Securely attached infants can freely express distress, receive comforting care, and return to exploration. This teaches them that close others will be available and responsive when needed (Ainsworth, 1979).
Insecurely attached infants, who receive less sensitive care, develop alternative strategies for regulating distress that persist into adulthood (Main, 1996; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007).
Girme, Y. U., Jones, R. E., Fleck, C., Simpson, J. A., & Overall, N. C. (2021). Infants’ attachment insecurity predicts attachment-relevant emotion regulation strategies in adulthood. Emotion, 21(2), 260.
Key Points
- Infants who were classified as insecurely attached to their mothers (avoidant or resistant) were more likely to show poorer emotion regulation strategies when managing conflict discussions with romantic partners in adulthood.
- Infants who were classified as insecurely attached in infancy twice (at 12 and 18 months) showed lower balanced regulation (being open and collaborative during conflicts) and greater hypo-regulation (suppressing emotions and disengaging during conflicts).
- Infants who were classified as insecurely attached just once in infancy (at 12 or 18 months) showed greater hyper-regulation (exaggerating emotions and being self-focused).
- Similarly, adolescents (age 16) who reported lower friendship security also showed poorer emotion regulation strategies during adult romantic conflict discussions.
- The results support attachment theory’s premise that early insecure attachment disrupts the development of constructive emotion regulation across the lifespan.
Rationale
No prior study has directly tested whether observed infant attachment security versus insecurity predicts specific emotion regulation strategies decades later when managing distress in adult romantic relationships.
This is a significant gap because attachment theory proposes that early caregiving shapes prototype strategies for regulating attachment-related emotions with close others throughout life.
This study aimed to empirically test these theoretical propositions by utilizing rare prospective longitudinal data spanning 20-35 years. The MLSRA dataset (Sroufe et al., 2005) enabled observation of both infant-mother attachment patterns in the Strange Situation, as well as emotion regulation strategies displayed during conflict discussions with romantic partners in adulthood.
This allowed a direct test of whether early attachment security/insecurity predicts attachment-relevant emotion regulation strategies much later in development – an essential premise of attachment theory that has substantial implications for socioemotional functioning, but has not yet been empirically demonstrated over such an extended period.
The long-term prospective design targeting key attachment situations makes this study uniquely equipped to address this significant gap in our understanding of how early relationships shape lifelong emotion regulation capacities.
Method
The sample consisted of 102 adults who had participated in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) since birth. This meant infant assessment data was available for them.
Infant Assessments
When participants were 12 and 18 months old, their attachment security with their mothers was directly assessed using Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure.
This is a standardized laboratory method that involves brief separations from and reunions with the mother, as well as interaction with a stranger.
Infant behaviors during the reunions are coded to classify them as securely attached or insecurely attached (avoidant or resistant/ambivalent).
Adult Assessments
Participants who were involved in romantic relationships lasting at least 4 months in adulthood were assessed at around ages 20, 23, 26, and 35.
Couples discussed a major unresolved relationship conflict on video for 10 minutes. Trained raters later coded these conflict discussion videos for expression of specific emotion regulation strategies (e.g. balanced-regulation, hypo-regulation, hyper-regulation).
- Balanced-regulation involves openly expressing emotions and engaging in collaborative, solution-focused communication during conflicts.
- Hypo-regulation involves suppressing emotional expressions, avoiding discussion of problems, and interacting superficially during conflicts.
- Hyper-regulation involves exaggerating emotional displays, ruminating extensively on problems, and focusing excessively on having one’s own feelings validated during conflicts.
Additional Measure
Friendship security with best friend at age 16 was assessed through interviewer ratings. Participants described their closest friendship, which interviewers scored for overall friendship security.
Results
Stable Infant Insecurity
Infants classified as insecurely attached to their mother at both the 12-month and 18-month assessments were considered stably insecure.
In adulthood, these individuals with a history of stable infant attachment insecurity displayed poorer emotion regulation habits when discussing relationship conflicts with romantic partners.
Specifically, they showed less balanced-regulation – characterized by being closed-off, lacking comfort expressing feelings, and having difficulty collaborating or compromise.
Additionally, stably insecure infants as infants showed greater hypo-regulation as adults during conflict discussions. This involves suppressing emotional displays, avoiding engagement, and interacting only at a superficial level without depth or intimacy.
Unstable Infant Insecurity
Infants classified as insecurely attached at only one of the two assessment points (12 or 18 months) were considered unstably insecure. Their insecurity was more sporadic over time.
As adults having conflict discussions with romantic partners, these individuals with a history of unstable infant attachment insecurity displayed higher rates of hyper-regulation strategies.
This includes exaggerating emotional displays, ruminating excessively, and focusing excessively on getting their own needs met by their partner.
Friendship Insecurity
Participants who felt less secure in their closest friendship at age 16 also showed worse balanced-regulation, greater hypo-regulation, and more hyper-regulation during adult romantic relationship conflicts.
Insight
Infant attachment security serves as the prototype (internal working model) for how people regulate and express emotions in close relationships into adulthood.
These initial working models essentially serve as a relational and regulatory prototype that persists unconsciously across development.
The patterns of emotions and behaviors shaped by early caregiving continue guiding reactions and regulation habits as new attachment relationships form into adulthood and beyond. So, early disruption has lifelong impacts on emotional and interpersonal functioning.
Additionally, the type of insecurity – whether stable or unstable – provides insight into caregiving histories.
Stable insecurity stems from more consistent harshness or deprivation, leading infants to suppress displays (hypo-regulation) for self-protection chronically. Unstable insecurity reflects more erratic care, teaching infants to heighten emotionality in hopes of receiving comfort when available (hyper-regulation).
In this way, internal working models and expected regulation strategies formed under varying conditions of early attachment insecurity go on to systematically guide emotional reactions and regulation efforts in close relationships through adulthood, for better or worse.
Strengths
- Prospective longitudinal design
- Observational assessments of attachment and emotion regulation across 20-35 years
- Integration of developmental
- Attachment and emotion regulation evidence
Limitations
- Small sample size prohibited examining anxious versus avoidant insecure infant attachment
- Only assessed infant-mother, not infant-father attachment
- Friendship security self-reported
Clinical Implications
Suggests attachment security is vital for fostering constructive emotion regulation. Tailored therapeutic approaches may benefit individuals with different attachment-related regulation strategies.
Individuals displaying hypo-regulation strategies (suppression, avoidance) likely developed these means of managing distress to prevent further harm, rejection, or loss of caregiver support in childhood.
Treatment may focus first on validating these self-protective motivations and building emotional openness and trust. Gradually encouraging awareness, experience, and expression of vulnerability in safe contexts can help restore flexible regulation capacities.
In contrast, those exhibiting hyper-regulation patterns (heightening emotional displays to elicit reassurance) may have experienced unpredictable caregiving in early childhood. For them, therapy might prioritize stabilizing supports, consistency in the therapeutic relationship, and anxiety reduction before promoting emotional exploration.
References
Primary reference
Girme, Y. U., Jones, R. E., Fleck, C., Simpson, J. A., & Overall, N. C. (2020). Infants’ attachment insecurity predicts attachment-relevant emotion regulation strategies in adulthood. Emotion, 20(2), 260–272. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000721
Other references
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1979). Infant–mother attachment. American Psychologist, 34(10), 932–937. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.932
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation (Vol. 2). New York: Basic Books.
Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion regulation: Influences of attachment relationships. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2-3), 228–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01287.x
Main, M. (1996). Introduction to the special section on attachment and psychopathology: 2. Overview of the field of attachment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 237–243. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-006x.64.2.237
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Sroufe, L. A., & Fleeson, J. (1986). Attachment and the construction of relationships. In W. Hartup & Z. Rubin (Eds.), Relationships and development (pp. 51-71). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E. A., & Collins, W. A. (2005). The development of the person: The Minnesota Study of Risk and Adaptation from Birth to Adulthood. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Keep Learning
- What aspects of early caregiving might contribute to the development of balanced versus hypo- or hyper-emotion regulation strategies?
- How might we design interventions to help individuals develop more constructive regulation strategies for managing distress?
- What further evidence is needed to clarify the processes linking early attachment to adult regulation?
