Attachment, autonomic functioning, and adolescent loss

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Title Attachment, autonomic functioning, and adolescent loss
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Psychology
Author Fagundes, Christopher P
Date 2010-08
Description Losing a close relationship is consistently rated as one of life's most stressful events, and has been found to be among the most robust predictors of major depression in adolescence. Surprising, little work has examined who is most at risk for postloss depressive symptoms in adolescence. The current study examined how adolescents' attachment insecurity and autonomic nervous system functioning assessed at age 14 was prognostic of postloss depressive symptoms in late adolescence. Adolescents with greater attachment anxiety to their mother at age 14 reported higher levels of postloss depressive symptoms to a subsequent relationship loss between ages 16 and18 if they were also characterized by heightened activation of the sympathetic nervous system during experimentally-induced stress at age 14 (as assessed via skin conductance level). Adolescents who reported higher levels of attachment avoidance to their mother at age 14 reported higher levels of postloss depressive symptoms if they were characterized by low levels of parasympathetic nervous system activity during experimentally-induced stress at age 14 (as assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA). The findings suggest that the maladaptive effects of poor mother-child relationships (indexed by attachment insecurity) for postloss depressive symptoms may largely depend upon one's biological predispositions for self-regulation.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Adolescence; Attachment; Loss; Psychophysiology
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name PhD
Language eng
Rights Management ©Christopher P. Fagundes
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 16,110 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,160330
Source original in Marriott Library Special Collections ; BF21.5 2010 .F34
ARK ark:/87278/s6wd4f12
Setname ir_etd
ID 192434
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6wd4f12
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