Feeling you, when you feel me: attachment, empathic concern, and interpersonal emotion regulation

Empathic concern is an important part of social relationships. Attachment orientation may explain individual differences in empathic concern. However, the circumstances under which attachment orientation is related to empathic concern remain unexamined. This exploratory study investigated the modera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social psychology 2022-11, Vol.162 (6), p.655-669
Main Authors: George-Levi, Sivan, Laslo-Roth, Roni, Schmidt-Barad, Tomer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attachment
Avoidance behavior
Concerns
Efficacy
emotion regulation
Emotional regulation
Emotions
empathic concern
Empathy
Individual differences
Positive emotions
relationship
Social relations
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Summary:Empathic concern is an important part of social relationships. Attachment orientation may explain individual differences in empathic concern. However, the circumstances under which attachment orientation is related to empathic concern remain unexamined. This exploratory study investigated the moderating role of a novel aspect of emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation, in the relationship between attachment orientation and empathic concern. Study 1 (N = 179) and Study 2 (direct replication, N = 202) yielded consistent main effects for emotion regulation. Interpersonal emotion regulation efficacy (people's belief that interpersonal emotion regulation can effectively change their negative and positive emotions) was positively associated with empathic concern. Avoidant attachment showed a moderately consistent negative association with empathic concern. Negative efficacy moderated the association between anxious attachment and empathic concern only in Study 1. The findings focus attention on the importance of interpersonal emotion regulation efficacy to empathic concern and on the complex relationship between attachment and empathic concern.
ISSN:0022-4545
1940-1183
DOI:10.1080/00224545.2021.1940075