Emotional States around Secure Base Script Knowledge: Autonomic Reactivity Profiles in the Adult Attachment Interview

Brief Description: This study investigates how adults' varying levels of secure base script knowledge influence patterns of autonomic nervous system reactivity during the Adult Attachment Interview. We theorize that an individual’s secure base script knowledge is associated with physiological responses when discussing childhood experiences with primary caregivers, as shown in distinct patterns of autonomic nervous system responses across individuals. Data from n = 254 expecting women from the Dutch Generations2 cohort will be used to analyze within-person changes in four physiological indices—respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), interbeat interval (IBI), pre-ejection period (PEP), and skin conductance level (SCL)—recorded continuously across interview segments. The central hypothesis is that ANS reactivity profiles will vary in accordance with secure base script knowledge as well as alternative schema status and reflect the four prototypical profiles of ANS reactivity proposed by the Adaptive Calibration Model: (1) sensitive, (2) buffered, (3) vigilant, (4) unemotional. Description Early experiences of caregiving adversity- such as emotional neglect, unpredictability, or threat exposures, alongside more severe forms such as childhood maltreatment, trauma, abuse, and chronic stress- may have far-reaching effects on socioemotional and biological functioning (Teicher et al., 2016; Dube et al., 2001; Cooke et al., 2021; Corso et al., 2011; Erenthal et al., 2018). Such conditions are associated with long-term impairments in emotional processing and regulation (Cicchetti & Curtis, 2005; Pollak et al., 2003; Wooten et al, 2022; Ion et al., 2023), critically influencing how individuals learn to regulate affect, perceive safety, and engage in relationships into adulthood (Huskey et al., 2022). From an attachment-theoretical perspective, these pervasive and long-term consequences arise, in part, from the internalization of early caregiving experiences into organized expectations about self and others (Bowlby, 1969/1982; Sroufe et al., 2010). The secure base perspective offers a valuable approach for assessing internalized caregiving patterns (Waters & Waters, 2006; Waters & Facompré, 2021). Central to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1988), the secure base concept describes an internalized expectation of caregiver availability and responsiveness during times of need. Repeated experiences of sensitive caregiving strengthen expectations of availability and responsiveness, whereas inconsistent or insensitive caregiving may yield low expectations of secure base provision in attachment relationships. Over time, these repeated early experiences foster a cognitive “secure base script” that guides individuals in times of distress. This temporally sequenced script is thought to form the foundation for subsequent attachment patterns and socioemotional development (Waters et al., 2019; Vaughn et al., 2016; Psouni & Apetroaia, 2014; Waters & Roisman, 2019). Attachment theorists have increasingly been interested in how cognitions related to early expectations of caregiver availability and support—or their absence—may translate into emotional dysregulation in adulthood (Bakkum et al., 2022; Bretherton et al., 2008). A promising mechanism underlying this process is biological embodiment, whereby early relational experiences become embedded in the physiological systems that regulate stress and affect (Bakkum et al., 2022; Bretherton et al., 2007; Caldji et al., 1998; McEwen et al., 1998; Pietromonaco & Powers, 2016). To interpret individual differences in these autonomic responses, we draw on attachment theory and the secure base perspective, which provide a framework for understanding how early caregiving experiences may shape adult stress regulation. The Secure Base Script in Adults A primary tool used to assess adults’ understanding of attachment relationships is the semi-structured Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; Main, Kaplan, & George, 1985), where interviewees are asked to recollect childhood experiences with primary caregivers, as well as experiences of loss, abuse, threat, and separation. Main and Goldwyn (1985/1994) developed a coding system to classify interviewees’ AAI discourse as indicative of their attachment state of mind, classifying individuals as secure-autonomous, dismissing, preoccupied, or unresolved. More recently, the Adult Attachment Interview Secure Base Script Scale (AAIsbs; Waters & Facompré, 2021) has provided a coding system for understanding how secure base expectations explicitly manifest in adults. With the AAIsbs, transcripts are scored on the extent to which interviewees expected primary caregivers to serve as an available resource when facing challenges and to provide a secure base from which to explore their environment throughout childhood. Additionally, this approach captures narratives that violate the essential elements of the secure base script, indicating an understanding of the attachment relationship that revolves around disruptive experiences with caregivers. For participants scoring at the lower end of the secure base script scale (AAIsbs = 1 or 1.5), these interviews abstract recurring, theme-like narratives focused on highly intrusive or distressing forms of caregiving into various schemas (Waters & Facompré, 2021). These schemas encompass a wide range of dynamics (e.g., role reversal, addiction, harsh and threatening parenting, incompetence; see Maingot et al., under review), allowing a broader scope to capture intricate detail in individual narratives. Across the thirteen identified schemas, caregivers are consistently portrayed as a source of distress that impedes the child's attachment goals. Ultimately, these alternative schemas provide qualitative insight into the experiences and narrative structures that characterize the lower end of the AAIsbs, enriching our understanding of its full spectrum. Whether this additional narrative-based detail reveals further associations with physiological responsivity remains to be seen. Early life experience and stress reactivity The act of remembering and talking about one’s childhood experiences with parents can arouse a broad range of feelings, with some recollections being warming and calming, and others being angering, saddening, or upsetting. The regulation of these emotions may even interfere with the ability to talk about one’s childhood, particularly for people from tumultuous backgrounds. Previous work on emotional regulation has found that recalling emotional experiences can alter the stress response system (SRS), particularly the two components of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) nervous systems. Autonomic regulation reflects the coordinated activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, which jointly shape physiological responses to environmental demands. The sympathetic nervous system is primarily responsible for mediating the "fight-or-flight" response, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system facilitates "rest-and-digest" functions (McCorry, 2007). Rather than operating as simple opposites, the SNS and PNS can show reciprocal, independent, or coactive patterns of influence, enabling flexible mobilization and regulation of arousal (Berntson et al., 1991). Individual differences in this coordination are thought to reflect developmental variation in regulatory capacity and vulnerability to dysregulation under stress (Beauchaine, 2001). In their study on children with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gray and colleagues (2018) showed that children with the diagnosis showed greater RSA reactivity when recalling a traumatic memory, but not during other memory tasks, suggesting increased parasympathetic arousal during relevant memory processing. In contrast, Griffin and colleagues (1997) found that adults with PTSD reflecting on a traumatic memory showed blunted reactivity with heart rate and skin conductance, indicating reduced sympathetic activation. One study found that insecurely attached women, specifically with dismissing states of mind, showed increased skin conductance in response to a present attachment-related stressor (a recording of a baby crying) (Ablow et al., 2013). Together, these findings suggest that recalling traumatic experiences might engage in autonomic responding across development. Still, this engagement may manifest through different autonomic pathways rather than a uniform direction of arousal change. Autonomic responding may vary based on context and task demands associated with stressors or stimuli, thereby shaping the regulatory strategies employed. Exposure to early adversity or trauma may contribute to inefficiencies in the coordinated activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, particularly under conditions of chronic or repeated stress. Early research on stress physiology frequently emphasized hyperreactive autonomic responses following acute or experimentally induced stressors (Cannon, 1914; Kirschbaum et al., 1993). However, more recent developmental and allostatic load models suggest that chronic or repeated exposure to stress is more consistently associated with attenuated or hyporeactive physiological responses, reflecting the wear and tear on the stress response system over time (Danese & McEwen, 2012; McEwen & Seeman, 1999; McEwen & Wingfield, 2003; Koss & Gunnar, 2018). Increased SNS reactivity may be adaptive for responding to acute, short-term stressors, but can result in long-term, system-wide dysregulation when physiological systems are activated for prolonged periods (Juster et al., 2010; McEwen & Seeman, 1999). Multiple studies have supported this link, demonstrating buffered responses in which stress reactivity is less pronounced than in those with more normative backgrounds (Bunea et al., 2017; Koss et al., 2016; Peckins et al., 2015).