Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 83-89.

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The Effect of Psychological resilience on attachment among college students: The Mediating Role of emotion regulation strategies and meta-emotion

  

  • Received:2015-03-06 Revised:2015-06-14 Online:2016-01-20 Published:2016-01-20

大学生依恋与心理弹性——情绪调节与元情绪的多重中介

李彩娜1,董竹1,焦思1,邹泓2   

  1. 1. 陕西师范大学
    2. 北京师范大学心理学院
  • 通讯作者: 李彩娜

Abstract: There is considerable evidence that attachment security is associated with many cognitive, emotional, and social benefits, one of the ways is by fostering an open flexible, and optimistic approach to life’s diverse and unpredictable challenges, which is the core concept of psychological resilience (Caldwell & Shaver, 2012). Psychological resilience is the ability of individuals in otherwise normal circumstances to maintain relatively stable, healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning, as well as the capacity for generative experiences and positive emotions (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). Ample evidence in the literature have found that individuals higher in psychological resiliency are better able to recover from negative emotional experiences and flexibly adapt to the fluctuating demands of stressful experiences. The attachment system is, in itself, an emotion regulation device and the effects of the attachment system on emotion regulation can be charted (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2010). Attachment-system activation and proximity seeking are integral parts of a person’s regulatory efforts, and they play an important role in shaping a person’s emotional responses. Beyond these normative links between attachment processes and emotion regulation, individual differences in attachment-system functioning affect how people appraise emotion-eliciting events and the regulation. A sense of attachment security promotes the regulatory processes that allow emotions to be experienced and expressed without defensive distortion, which contribute to higher level of meta-emotion and more positive emotion experience (Fullam, 2002). In contrast, attachment insecurities contribute to distortion or denial of emotional experience, which result in defective meta-emotion and more health problem and negative emotion experience (Laan, Van Assen, & Vingerhoets Laan, 2012). Individual with an avoidant attachment style may inhibit or suppress their emotion, and anxiety attachment individuals would intensify the undesirable emotions. Consider of the regulation of affect is central to resilience and attachment, the purpose of this study is to explore the unclear mechanism between attachment and psychological resilience. In this study, we used the structure equation model to investigate whether emotion regulation strategies and meta-emotion mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and attachment. Participants were 982 adolescents (471 boys and 511 girls) who attended high schools, and they completed the Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory (ECR), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) and the Ego Resilience Scale (ERS). The results indicated that: (1) Emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and suppression) and meta-emotion could predict individuals’ psychological resilience significantly. (2) Reappraisal and meta-emotion mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and attachment anxiety. (3) Attachment avoidance not only directly influenced psychological resilience but also indirectly influenced psychological resilience through reappraisal and meta-emotion. Therefore, we concluded that attachment anxiety, avoidance and emotion regulation strategies, meta-emotion were the crucial elements of psychological resilience, more importantly, emotion regulation strategies, and meta-emotion have a significant mediating effect on psychological resilience and attachment. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings from the study were discussed, the findings enriched the theory of attachment and psychological resilience, and the results could contribute to our understanding of the mental health for adolescents.

Key words: attachment, emotion regulation strategies, meta-emotion, psychological resilience

摘要: 对982名大学生的依恋、情绪调节策略、元情绪及心理弹性进行测查,考察依恋与心理弹性间关系的内在机制。结构方程模型分析结果显示:(1)依恋、情绪调节与元情绪均能显著预测心理弹性;(2)依恋焦虑通过认知重评和元情绪间接预测心理弹性;(3)依恋回避不但直接负向预测心理弹性,还会通过认知重评和元情绪间接预测心理弹性。本研究结果显示,情绪调节策略和元情绪能够解释依恋与心理弹性间关系的内在机制。

关键词: 依恋, 情绪调节策略, 元情绪, 心理弹性