Adult Attachment Styles and Emotional Regulation: The Role of Interoceptive Awareness and Alexithymia

Abstract

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences, such as disturbances in attachment with primary caregivers, influences how we experience and regulate our emotions in adulthood. Additionally, a conscious perception and understanding of our internal bodily signals – classified as interoceptive awareness – heightens our capacity to recognise changes in emotional arousal, as based upon physiological signalling. The current study explored whether this interoceptive capability functioned as a mediator in the relationship between adult attachment style and emotional regulation, and whether alexithymia – a personality construct characterised by affective impairments – further mediated this relationship. A convenience sample of 219 Australian adults completed an online survey comprised of a sociodemographic questionnaire and four standardised measures that assessed these aforementioned constructs. Results from bivariate correlations and parallel multiple mediation analyses found that anxious and avoidant attachment styles were negatively associated with the perception of bodily sensations and positively associated with difficulties identifying and describing feelings and regulating negative affect. Furthermore, IA and alexithymia were found to partially mediate the relationship between adult attachment insecurity and emotional regulation difficulties. The application of mind-body oriented therapies are suggested as appropriate interventions to enhance awareness of interoceptive states and reduce alexithymic symptomology, thereby improving emotional regulation.