Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 19, 2025
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Care vs Food as an Emotional Regulation Strategy in Elementary School Children: The Role of the Attachment Style
Arcangelo Uccula1, Mauro Enna1, Claudio Mulatti2
1Department of History, Human Sciences and Education, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Attachment theory
Background:
- Attachment theory posits that threatening stimuli activate the attachment system, prompting a search for a protective figure.
- Secure attachments foster emotion regulation strategies, involving seeking responsive relationships during stress.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how children's attachment styles influence their choice between seeking care or food for emotion regulation under mild threat.
- To examine the differential use of social support versus food as coping mechanisms based on attachment security.
Main Methods:
- A mixed experimental design was employed with 65 children (mean age 9.4 years).
- Participants viewed neutral and threatening images.
- Children then selected between images depicting caring relationships or food.
Main Results:
- Securely and ambivalently attached children consistently chose care over food images, regardless of image type.
- Avoidantly attached children did not show this preference.
- Securely attached children significantly increased their preference for care over food images in the threatening condition compared to avoidant children.
Conclusions:
- While seeking care is generally preferred over food for emotion regulation, this preference is modulated by attachment security.
- Children with insecure attachments exhibit different emotion regulation strategies compared to securely attached children.
- Attachment style significantly impacts the choice of coping resources (social support vs. food) when facing mild threat.
Abstract:
According to attachment theory, potentially threatening stimuli tend to activate the attachment system for the search of the protective figure. In secure attachments, the experience of responsive relationships increases the probability of resorting to available figures as a strategy for regulating emotions in stressful situations. The aim of the research was to verify whether, in conditions of mild threat, children's attachment styles affect the choice between caring relationships and food as a form of emotion regulation. We used a mixed experimental design to perform this research. Here, we presented children (N = 65; M= 9.4) with threatening and neutral images and, afterwards, asked them to select from images of caring relationship or images of food. The results indicate that securely and ambivalently attached but not avoidantly attached children under both the neutral and threatening image conditions chose the care pictures over the food pictures. Second, only the securely attached increased their choice of care over food images in the threatening condition, and third, this difference was significant when compared with the avoidant children. In conclusion, the results show that although in general the choice of care is primary with respect to food, children with insecure attachments differ from secure children between the two options of emotional regulation.
Related Concept Videos
01:24Attachment Styles
01:20Attachment
01:28Relationship with Parents: Attachment
03:34Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood
01:30Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
01:28Hazan and Shaver's Attachment Styles