Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Communication, Family Studies, Psychology, Social, Psychology, Attachment, depressive symptoms, middle childhood, moderation, skin conductance, DIFFERENTIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY, EMOTION REGULATION, INTERNALIZING SYMPTOMS, TEMPERAMENT, ADOLESCENCE, VULNERABILITY, STRATEGIES, REACTIVITY, DISORDERS, CHILDREN, 1701 Psychology, Social Psychology, 4410 Sociology, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015. The current study investigated whether biological sensitivity to emotional information moderates the link between attachment anxiety/avoidance and depressive symptoms. Sixty children (9–12 years old) completed questionnaires on attachment and depressive symptoms. Skin conductance level (SCL) was measured across three conditions: an emotionally neutral baseline condition, a negative mood induction condition, and a positive mood induction condition. SCL variability (SCLV) was calculated as the intraindividual variation across these conditions expressing the extent to which children are biologically sensitive to positive and negative emotional information. Results showed that SCLV moderated the association between depressive symptoms and attachment anxiety. Attachment anxiety was only linked with depressive symptoms when children showed more SCLV, suggesting that attachment anxiety is only a risk factor for children who are biologically sensitive to respond to emotional information. SCLV did not moderate the association between depressive symptoms and attachment avoidance. Instead, a significant correlation was found between attachment avoidance and SCLV, which replicated previous research and might be caused by more avoidantly attached children’s unsuccessful attempts to suppress emotional reactions.