Attachment insecurity, heart rate variability, and perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults

Vida Pourmand; Nicole M Froidevaux; DeWayne P Williams; Ilona S Yim; Belinda Campos

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1208924

Attachment insecurity, heart rate variability, and perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults

Front Psychol. 2023 Nov 10:14:1208924. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1208924. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Vida Pourmand¹, Nicole M Froidevaux¹, DeWayne P Williams¹, Ilona S Yim¹, Belinda Campos^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
² Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.

Abstract

Psychological and physical factors are robustly associated with perceived social support. Drawing from the literature on attachment style in adults and psychophysiology, we examined the possibility that the interaction of attachment insecurity and resting heart rate variability (HRV) was associated with perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults living in the U.S (N = 145, M_age = 20.45) that was majority Latino (n = 77). Analyses revealed three key findings. First, in the overall sample, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were negatively associated with perceived social support, but in the Latino sample, only attachment avoidance was negatively associated with perceived social support. Second, HRV was not associated with perceived social support in the overall sample nor in the Latino sample. Third, attachment insecurity and HRV interacted to predict perceived social support only in the Latino sample such that, for those with lower levels of HRV, attachment anxiety was positively associated with perceived social support. This study underscores the importance of examining both psychological and physiological processes with careful consideration of ethnicity/culture in order to better understand perceived social support.

Keywords: Latino; attachment; culture; ethnicity; heart rate variability; social support.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by a Multi-Investigator Faculty Research Grant from the University of California, Irvine to BC and IY. The sponsor was not involved in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; nor in the decision to submit the article for publication.