Attachment Style, Vagal Tone, and Empathy During Mother–Adolescent Interactions

Abstract

We tested associations among empathic responsiveness, attachment style, and vagal tone (a physiologic index of emotion regulation) in 103 mother–adolescent dyads. Dyads discussed positive and negative topics and then separately reviewed a videotape of the interaction and rated their own and the other person's affect at one‐minute intervals. We used multilevel modeling to analyze the association between one's rating of the other person's affect and the other person's affect (empathic sensitivity), and the association between one's rating of the other person's affect and one's own affect (perceived concordance). Adolescents’ empathic responsiveness was predicted by attachment style, vagal tone, and interactions between them. Adolescents with the greatest empathic responsiveness had low levels of attachment insecurity and high levels of vagal tone.

Assessing parental empathy: a role for empathy in child attachment

“…Conversely, adult attachment insecurity (particularly avoidance) is associated with lower levels of empathy (Joireman, Lasane, Bennett, Richards, & Solaimani, 2001;Wei, Liao, Ku, & Shaffer, 2011). Among adolescents, attachment security is associated with greater empathy and vagal tone during interactions with their mothers (Diamond, Fagundes, & Butterworth, 2012). In experimental research, contextual priming of attachment security has been shown to strengthen empathic responding and inhibit personal distress, providing evidence for a causal link between secure states of mind and empathy among adults (Mikulincer et al, 2001).…”

A construct divided: prosocial behavior as helping, sharing, and comforting subtypes

“…Securely attached individuals generally see other people as reliable sources of support, whereas insecurely attached individuals see others as unreliable sources of potential pain (e.g., Dykas and Cassidy, 2011). And although attachment security has been generally associated with the production of empathic behaviors across the lifespan (Mikulincer et al, 2001; Mikulincer and Shaver, 2005; Mikulincer et al, 2005; Diamond et al, 2012), it is possible that it does not affect the ability to represent all three varieties of negative states equally (Johnson et al, 2013). …”

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, effortful control, and parenting as predictors of children’s sympathy across early childhood.

“…Heart-rate deceleration has been shown to occur in contexts that evoke a sympathetic/compassionate response, whereas heart-rate acceleration occurs in contexts that evoke distress (see Eisenberg et al, 2006; Goetz et al, 2010). Moreover, researchers have sometimes found that higher levels of baseline RSA (or heart-rate variability) were associated with higher levels of empathy or sympathy (Diamond, Fagundes, & Butterworth, 2012; Liew et al, 2011), low personal distress (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Eisenbud, 1993), and prosocial behavior (Fabes, Eisenberg, Karbon, Troyer, & Switzer, 1994). However, other researchers have not found support, or have found mixed support, for these relations (Graziano, Keane, & Calkins, 2007; Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000; Zahn-Waxler, Cole, Welsh, & Fox, 1995).…”

“…Of note, few existing studies are longitudinal, and nearly all studies measured sympathy/empathy in toddlers/preschoolers and/or kindergartners to second graders. To our knowledge, only Diamond et al (2012) and Hastings et al (2000) measured outcomes primarily for children aged 6 to 7 years or older. Perhaps RSA functioning has more positive relations with sympathy in older children because of stronger positive relations with variables such as regulation.…”