Co-regulation

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Co-regulation (or coregulation) is a term used in psychology. It is defined most broadly as a "continuous unfolding of individual action that is susceptible to being continuously modified by the continuously changing actions of the partner". An important aspect of this idea is that co-regulation cannot be reduced down to the behaviors or experiences of the individuals involved in the interaction. [1] The interaction is a result of each participant repeatedly regulating the behavior of the other. It is a continuous and dynamic process, rather than the exchange of discrete information. [2]

Contents

Co-regulation is often applied in the context of emotions. In this sense, the emotions of each individual within a dyad are constantly in flux, depending on the emotions and behaviors of the partner. If emotion co-regulation is in effect, the result will be a decrease in overall emotional distress. A working definition of emotion co-regulation has been offered as "a bidirectional linkage of oscillating emotional channels between partners, which contributes to emotional stability for both partners". [1] Emotion co-regulation is thoroughly studied in the context of early emotional development, often between infants and caregivers. It has also been studied in adult interpersonal interactions, with an emphasis on close, romantic relationships. One important note regarding co-regulation is that there may be an imbalance within the dyad, such that one member is more actively regulating the behavior of the other.

Proposed criteria

Despite a history of studies on co-regulation, researchers have lacked a clear, operational definition of co-regulation. In a review of emotional co-regulation in close relationships, Butler and Randall proposed the following three criteria for determining the presence of co-regulation: [1]

  1. Bidirectional linkage of emotional channels:
    Both partners' emotions will influence each other in a recursive pattern of mutual regulation. Critically, this effect will be supported by statistical tests for dependence.
  2. Morphostatic oscillating emotional channels:
    The level of emotional arousal within each member will stay within the range of stable, comfortable arousal (mildly negative to fairly positive). If the dyad becomes too emotionally aroused without a subsequent return to emotional calm, this would be a failure to co-regulate. Morphostatic oscillation is in contrast to morphogenic oscillation, which results in an elevated emotional state for one or both partners. Examples of morphogenic oscillation includes emotion contagion, transmission, and negative reciprocity during conflicts.
  3. Co-regulation will contribute to emotional and physiological allostasis for both partners.
    A close relationship partner (e.g., caregiver, spouse) will be sensitive to one's emotional distress, and mere proximity to that partner will automatically lead to reductions in distress. In contrast, proximity to a stranger when faced with a stressor may also lead to reductions in distress, but it will not manifest in a bidirectional pattern.

Across the lifespan

In childhood

Co-regulation has been identified as a critical precursor for emotional self-regulation. Infants have instinctive regulatory behaviors, such as gaze redirection, body re-positioning, self-soothing, distraction, problem solving, and venting, [3] but the most effective way for an infant to regulate distress is to seek out help from a caregiver. Sensitive, reliable responses by the caregiver, over time, indicate to the infant that emotional distress is manageable, either with the help of a caregiver, or by strategies developed during past interactions with a caregiver.

The following is an example of co-regulation between a mother and her infant, from Emotional Development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years. This scenario exemplifies a mother maintaining her infant's engagement via variations in her voice, facial expressions, and body language. She sensitively elicits behaviors from the infant and adds more stimulation when appropriate. Likewise, the infant indicates and maintains the mutual engagement with her own facial expressions, vocalizations, and body language.

Hello there pumpkin ... Mommy's comin' to get you. Yes, she is. [Brief pause.] Momma's gonna get you and tickle you. What do you think of that? [Brief pause.] Come on. Come on, you little sweetie. Let me see that smile. Humm? [Pause.] Yeah, that's right ... thaaaat's right. [The infant exhibits a big smile with bobbing head, and mother responds in kind, then says,] Oh, well now, are you gonna say somethin'? Are ya? [Pause, mother nodding head, widening eyes.] Come on! [Pause.] Come on! [The baby begins cycling movements of the arms and kicking the feet.] Come on. [Drawn out, then longer pause.] Yeah! [as the baby bursts forth with a gurgling sound, the caregiver then laughs and hugs the baby]." [4]

In infancy, co-regulation is primarily initiated and maintained by the caregiver, such that the caregiver is putting forth effort to soothe the child's emotional distress. Caregiver responses are calibrated to closely fit infant responses and elicit the next behavior. This effect has been called "caregiver-guided dyadic regulation". [4] Co-regulatory interactions between parents and children become more balanced over time, as children develop emotion regulation strategies of their own. Caregivers of preschoolers, for example, take a more passive co-regulating role. They demonstrate willingness to assist with distress and availability when needed, but not over-involvement. Instead of more actively co-regulating, these parents are more likely than parents of younger children to give their children space to independently regulate, suggest regulation strategies, or facilitate more abstract discussions regarding emotional experiences and appropriate responses. [5]

The strongest theoretical and empirical support for this phenomenon comes from research on attachment theory. [6] Attachment has even been explicitly defined as "the dyadic regulation of emotion". [4] The basic premise is that early biological and behavioral co-regulation from the caregiver facilitates the child's development of secure attachment which then promotes self-regulation. Drawing from John Bowlby's theory of "internal working models", young children develop mental representations of the caregiving relationship, as well as relationships more generally, through repeated interactions with the caregiver. Sensitive and consistent caregiving promotes the development of the expectation that emotional arousal is manageable via eliciting the support of the caregiver (or others) and/or with independent coping. Alternatively, Bowlby hypothesized that infants who experience insensitive and inconsistent caregiving are likely to develop the expectation that emotional needs will not be met by others or the self. [6] Furthermore, in studies testing the statistical dependencies between parent and infant behaviors, researchers have found support for contingencies of eye gaze, facial expressions, prosody, speech rhythms, attention, and physiological arousal. [7]

In adulthood

Co-regulation has also been examined in the context of close adult relationships, though less so than in the parent-child context. Research studies conducted thus far provide preliminary support for the phenomenon. Similar to the evidence for co-regulation in childhood, this literature is often rooted in the attachment framework. As such, it works from the hypothesis that early experiences of co-regulation are internalized and guide expectations about, and behavior within, future close relationships. [8] There are, however, several points of divergence between the child and adult literature on co-regulation. First, co-regulation in adult relationships is defined by reciprocity between partners, such that the responsibility to regulate the other is more or less equally split. Second, research on adult co-regulation is more likely to incorporate physiological measures. Indeed, physiological substrates involved in reward systems (e.g., oxytocin, opioids), are strongly activated by sexual contact, which is an added mechanism through which adults co-regulate. Third, animal models are commonly utilized in studies of co-regulation within adult dyads. [9]

Despite these differences, research findings on adult co-regulation thus far seem to extend the parent-child co-regulation findings. So far, researchers have evidence that adult partners' emotions oscillate in a coordinated pattern [10] and that presence of one's spouse leads to stress reduction, and even more so for individuals in reportedly high quality marriages. [11]

Indicators

Behavioral

Examples of co-regulating parent behaviors/caregiver-guided dyadic regulation: [12] [13]

Biological

Inclusion of physiological measurements of co-regulation is a relatively recent innovation in the psychological research. The underlying premise is that, similar to observable indicators of co-regulation, co-regulating partners' physiology will be bidirectionally linked and subsequently stabilized. Some of these biological measures may be more effective research tools than others. More rapidly fluctuating indices, such as autonomic responses, for example, are proposed to be more temporally sensitive measures of biological co-regulation. [1]

In autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

As co-regulation is contingent on reciprocal relationships between members of a dyad, it can be compromised by risk factors within the individuals. As such, a newer line of research has identified children on the autism spectrum as a risk group for disruptions in co-regulation in their parent-child dyads. In the DSM-5, the first diagnostic criterion of ASD is "Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts" [14] Thus, disruptions with co-regulation are inherent in the disorder, in that individuals with ASD exhibit difficulties in social-emotional reciprocity and sharing of emotions. Although only a handful of studies have directly examined co-regulation in parent-child with ASD dyads, converging evidence has demonstrated that parents' immediate responses to emotional distress facilitates self-regulation for children with ASD. [15] One particularly interesting finding was that, while mothers of typically developing children transition to more passive co-regulation over toddlerhood, as their children become more independent self-regulators, mothers of children with ASD continued to use active co-regulation strategies throughout the duration of the study. The authors conjectured that this continuation was a reflection of the mothers' sensitivity to their children's heightened developmental needs. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary care giving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age, frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child, but does not result in attachment disorder.

Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is described in clinical literature as a severe disorder that can affect children, although these issues do occasionally persist into adulthood. RAD is characterized by markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate ways of relating socially in most contexts. It can take the form of a persistent failure to initiate or respond to most social interactions in a developmentally appropriate way—known as the "inhibited form". In the DSM-5, the "disinhibited form" is considered a separate diagnosis named "disinhibited attachment disorder".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attachment theory</span> Psychological ethological theory about human relationships

Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development. The theory was formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby (1907-1990).

Emotional dysregulation is a range of emotional responses that do not lie within a desirable scope of emotive response, considering the stimuli.

In psychology, an affectional bond is a type of attachment behavior one individual has for another individual, typically a caregiver for their child, in which the two partners tend to remain in proximity to one another. The term was coined and subsequently developed over the course of four decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1970s, by psychologist John Bowlby in his work on attachment theory. The core of the term affectional bond, according to Bowlby, is the attraction one individual has for another individual. The central features of the concept of affectional bonding can be traced to Bowlby's 1958 paper, "The Nature of the Child's Tie to his Mother".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attachment in children</span> Biological instinct

Attachment in children is "a biological instinct in which proximity to an attachment figure is sought when the child senses or perceives threat or discomfort. Attachment behaviour anticipates a response by the attachment figure which will remove threat or discomfort". Attachment also describes the function of availability, which is the degree to which the authoritative figure is responsive to the child's needs and shares communication with them. Childhood attachment can define characteristics that will shape the child's sense of self, their forms of emotion-regulation, and how they carry out relationships with others. Attachment is found in all mammals to some degree, especially primates.

In psychology, the theory of attachment can be applied to adult relationships including friendships, emotional affairs, adult romantic and carnal relationships, and, in some cases, relationships with inanimate objects. Attachment theory, initially studied in the 1960s and 1970s primarily in the context of children and parents, was extended to adult relationships in the late 1980s. The working models of children found in Bowlby's attachment theory form a pattern of interaction that is likely to continue influencing adult relationships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stranger anxiety</span> Stranger anxiety is a form of distress that children feel when exposed to strangers.

Stranger anxiety is a form of distress that children experience when exposed to strangers. Stranger anxiety and stranger fear are two interchangeable terms. Stranger anxiety is a typical part of the developmental sequence that most children experience. It can occur even if the child is with a caregiver or another person they trust. It peaks from six to 12 months but may recur afterwards until the age of 24 months. As a child gets older, stranger anxiety can be a problem as they begin to socialize. Children may become hesitant to play with unfamiliar children. Foster children are especially at risk, particularly if they experienced neglect early in their life.

Cupboard love is a popular learning theory of the 1950s and 1960s based on the research of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein and Mary Ainsworth. Rooted in psychoanalysis, the theory speculates that attachment develops in the early stages of infancy. This process involves the mother satisfying her infant's instinctual needs, exclusively. Cupboard love theorists conclude that during infancy, our primary drive is food which leads to a secondary drive for attachment.

Emotional self-regulation or emotion regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. It can also be defined as extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions. Emotional self-regulation belongs to the broader set of emotion regulation processes, which includes both the regulation of one's own feelings and the regulation of other people's feelings.

Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.

The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of nine and 30 months. Broadly speaking, the attachment styles were (1) secure and (2) insecure. Later, Mary Main and her husband Erik Hesse introduced the 4th category, disorganized. The procedure played an important role in the development of attachment theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Schechter</span> American neuroscientist

Daniel S. Schechter is an American and Swiss psychiatrist known for his clinical work and research on intergenerational transmission or "communication" of violent trauma and related psychopathology involving parents and very young children. His published work in this area following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York of September 11, 2001 led to a co-edited book entitled "September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds" (2003) and additional original articles with clinical psychologist Susan Coates that were translated into multiple languages and remain among the first accounts of 9/11 related loss and trauma described by mental health professionals who also experienced the attacks and their aftermath Schechter observed that separation anxiety among infants and young children who had either lost or feared loss of their caregivers triggered posttraumatic stress symptoms in the surviving caregivers. These observations validated his prior work on the adverse impact of family violence on the early parent-child relationship, formative social-emotional development and related attachment disturbances involving mutual dysregulation of emotion and arousal. This body of work on trauma and attachment has been cited by prominent authors in the attachment theory, psychological trauma, developmental psychobiology and neuroscience literatures

Patricia McKinsey Crittenden is an American psychologist known for her work in the development of attachment theory and science, her work in the field of developmental psychopathology, and for creation of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maternal sensitivity</span>

Maternal sensitivity is a mother's ability to perceive and infer the meaning behind her infant's behavioural signals, and to respond to them promptly and appropriately. Maternal sensitivity affects child development at all stages through life, from infancy, all the way to adulthood. In general, more sensitive mothers have healthier, more socially and cognitively developed children than those who are not as sensitive. Also, maternal sensitivity has been found to affect the person psychologically even as an adult. Adults who experienced high maternal sensitivity during their childhood were found to be more secure than those who experienced less sensitive mothers. Once the adult becomes a parent themselves, their own understanding of maternal sensitivity will affect their own children's development. Some research suggests that adult mothers display more maternal sensitivity than adolescent mothers who may in turn have children with a lower IQ and reading level than children of adult mothers.

Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences excessive anxiety regarding separation from home and/or from people to whom the individual has a strong emotional attachment. Separation anxiety is a natural part of the developmental process. It is most common in infants and little children, typically between the ages of six to seven months to three years, although it may pathologically manifest itself in older children, adolescents and adults. Unlike SAD, normal separation anxiety indicates healthy advancements in a child's cognitive maturation and should not be considered a developing behavioral problem.

Studies have found that the father is a child's preferred attachment figure in approximately 5–20% of cases. Fathers and mothers may react differently to the same behaviour in an infant, and the infant may react to the parents' behaviour differently depending on which parent performs it.

Internal working model of attachment is a psychological approach that attempts to describe the development of mental representations, specifically the worthiness of the self and expectations of others' reactions to the self. This model is a result of interactions with primary caregivers which become internalized, and is therefore an automatic process. John Bowlby implemented this model in his attachment theory in order to explain how infants act in accordance with these mental representations. It is an important aspect of general attachment theory.

Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others. As such, social emotional development encompasses a large range of skills and constructs, including, but not limited to: self-awareness, joint attention, play, theory of mind, self-esteem, emotion regulation, friendships, and identity development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breastfeeding and mental health</span>

Breastfeeding and mental health is the relationship between postpartum breastfeeding and the mother's and child's mental health. Research indicates breastfeeding may have positive effects on the mother's and child's mental health, though there have been conflicting studies that question the correlation and causation of breastfeeding and maternal mental health. Possible benefits include improved mood and stress levels in the mother, lower risk of postpartum depression, enhanced social emotional development in the child, stronger mother-child bonding and more. Given the benefits of breastfeeding, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission for Public Health (ECPH) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggest exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Despite these suggestions, estimates indicate 70% of mothers breastfeed their child after birth and 13.5% of infants in the United States are exclusively breastfed. Breastfeeding promotion and support for mothers who are experiencing difficulties or early cessation in breastfeeding is considered a health priority.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Butler, E. A., & Randall, A. K. (2013). Emotional Coregulation in Close Relationships. Emotion Review, 5(2), 202–210. http://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912451630
  2. ↑ Fogel, A., & Garvey, A. (2007). Alive communication. Infant Behavior and Development, 30(2), 251–257. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.02.007
  3. ↑ Leerkes, E. M., & Wong, M. S. (2012). Infant Distress and Regulatory Behaviors Vary as a Function of Attachment Security Regardless of Emotion Context and Maternal Involvement. Infancy, 17(5), 455–478. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00099.x
  4. 1 2 3 Sroufe, L. A. (1997). Emotional development: The organization of emotional life in the early years. Cambridge University Press.
  5. ↑ Blandon, A. Y., Calkins, S. D., Keane, S. P., & O'Brien, M. (2008). Individual differences in trajectories of emotion regulation processes: The effects of maternal depressive symptomatology and children's physiological regulation. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 1110–1123. http://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.1110
  6. 1 2 Bowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment and loss (Vol 1), 2nd ed. New York: Basic.
  7. ↑ Field, T. (1985). Attachment as psychobiological attunement: Being on the same wavelength. In M. Reite & T. Field (Eds.), The psychobiology of attachment and separation (pp. 415–454). Orlando, FL: Academic Press
  8. ↑ Sroufe, L. A., & Fleeson, J. (1986). Attachment and the construction of relationships. In W. Hartup & Z. Rubin (Eds), Relationships in development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  9. ↑ Sbarra, D. A., & Hazan, C. (2008). Coregulation, Dysregulation, Self-Regulation: An Integrative Analysis and Empirical Agenda for Understanding Adult Attachment, Separation, Loss, and Recovery. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12(2), 141–167. http://doi.org/10.1177/1088868308315702
  10. ↑ Butner, J., Diamond, L. M., & Hicks, A. M. (2007). Attachment style and two forms of affect coregulation between romantic partners. Personal Relationships, 14, 431–455.
  11. ↑ Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17, 1032–1039
  12. 1 2 Gulsrud, A. C., Jahromi, L. B., & Kasari, C. (2009). The Co-Regulation of Emotions Between Mothers and their Children with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(2), 227–237. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0861-x
  13. ↑ Grolnick, W. S., Kurowski, C. O., McMenamy, J. M., Rivkin, I., & Bridges, L. J. (1998). Mothers' strategies for regulating their toddlers' distress. Infant Behavior and Development, 21(3), 437–450. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90018-2
  14. ↑ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.
  15. ↑ Hirschler-Guttenberg, Y., Feldman, R., Ostfeld-Etzion, S., Laor, N., & Golan, O. (2015). Self- and Co-regulation of Anger and Fear in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Maternal Parenting Style and Temperament. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(9), 3004–3014. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2464-z
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