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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Emotion Science
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1360366

The Moderating Role of the Late Positive Potential in the Link Between Attachment Anxiety and Emotion Regulation Difficulties

Provisionally accepted
Miguel R. Henderson Miguel R. Henderson 1Mónica Guzmán-González Mónica Guzmán-González 2Joaquín Bahamondes Joaquín Bahamondes 2Marcos Domic-Siede Marcos Domic-Siede 3*
  • 1 Universidad Santo Tomás, Antofagasta, Chile
  • 2 Catholic University of the North, Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile
  • 3 Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Understanding how adults experience and regulate their emotions is strongly linked to attachment orientations. Numerous studies indicate emotional regulation difficulties in both attachment avoidance and anxiety. Additionally, emotional Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), such as the Late Positive Potential (LPP), reveal the process of emotional information at the cerebral level, and thus, LPP is commonly used in studies examining emotion regulation processes. For instance, when individuals are asked to use cognitive strategies to increase, maintain, or decrease their emotional responses to stimuli, changes in LPP amplitude can reflect the effectiveness of these regulation strategies. However, little is known about the potential moderating effect of the LPP during the implementation of emotional regulation strategies in the relationship between attachment dimensions and emotional dysregulation. To address this oversight, the purpose of the present study was to examine the association between both dimensions of attachment, anxiety and avoidance, and emotional dysregulation, as well as the moderating role of the LPP during the induced implementation of cognitive reappraisal. To these ends, brain activity was recorded using EEG from n = 63 adults while they performed a task in which they were instructed to either reappraise or suppress emotions elicited by unpleasant images. To assess the associations between LPP, emotional dysregulation, and attachment orientations, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Spanish version (DERS-E) and the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire (ECR-12) were used. Interestingly, we found that greater LPP amplitudes during reappraisal implementation intensified the association between attachment anxiety and emotional regulation difficulties. Conversely, this relationship was non-significant under lower levels of LPP amplitude-Providing supporting evidence for the moderating role of LPP. This study provides new insights into how variations in LPP contribute to the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies.

    Keywords: adult attachment, Emotion Regulation, Late positive potential (LPP), event-related potentials (ERPs), cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression

    Received: 22 Dec 2023; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Henderson, Guzmán-González, Bahamondes and Domic-Siede. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Marcos Domic-Siede, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile

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