Adult attachment and testosterone reactivity: Fathers' avoidance predicts changes in testosterone during the strange situation procedure
Adult attachment and testosterone reactivity: Fathers' avoidance predicts changes in testosterone during the strange situation procedure
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DOI：
10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.01.009
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发表时间：
2019-06-01
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Volling, Brenda L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Edelstein, Robin S.;Chin, Kristi;Volling, Brenda L.
我们评估了父母对奇怪情况程序(SSP)的睾酮反应，SSP是一种中等压力的父母-婴儿互动任务，它拉动了父母的养育和照看行为。父母(146名母亲，154名父亲)与他们1岁的婴儿互动，并在任务前和任务后采集唾液样本，以评估睾丸激素的变化。我们考察了母亲和父亲之间的睾酮反应是否存在差异，父母的亲近方式(即成人依恋取向)对睾酮变化的影响程度，以及成人依恋取向的任何影响是否独立于更一般的人格特征(即五大人格维度)。结果显示，在SSP期间，母亲和父亲的睾丸素水平出现了类似的下降，而那些更倾向于回避依恋的父亲(即那些不太适应亲密关系的父亲)，这些下降会得到缓解。父亲的回避和睾酮反应之间的联系在统计上独立于更广泛的人格特征。我们的发现为母亲和父亲的睾丸激素在促进后天养成的背景下的短期变化提供了一些初步证据。此外，这些发现表明，成人依恋的个体差异可能在理解这种变化方面发挥重要作用。我们讨论了成人依恋和父母的睾酮反应之间的性别差异的可能解释，以及睾酮反应可能在多大程度上对母亲和父亲的环境变化敏感。
We assessed parents' testosterone reactivity to the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), a moderately stressful parent-infant interaction task that pulls for parental nurturance and caregiving behavior. Parents (146 mothers, 154 fathers) interacted with their 1-year-old infants, and saliva samples were obtained pre- and post-task to assess changes in testosterone. We examined whether testosterone reactivity differed between mothers and fathers, the extent to which parents' characteristic approaches to closeness (i.e., adult attachment orientation) contributed to testosterone changes, and whether any influences of adult attachment orientation were independent of more general personality characteristics (i.e., the Big Five personality dimensions). Results revealed that mothers and fathers showed comparable declines in testosterone during the SSP, and that these declines were attenuated among fathers with a more avoidant attachment orientation (i.e., those less comfortable with closeness). Associations between fathers' avoidance and testosterone reactivity were statistically independent of broader personality traits. Our findings provide some of the first evidence for short-term changes in both mothers' and fathers' testosterone in contexts that pull for nurturance. Moreover, these findings demonstrate that individual differences in adult attachment may play an important role in understanding such changes. We discuss possible explanations for gender differences in associations between adult attachment and parents' testosterone reactivity, and the extent to which testosterone reactivity might be sensitive to changes in context for mothers versus fathers.