ABSTRACT

Attachment experiences are thought to contribute to physical health across the lifespan. Evidence suggests that attachment style may serve as a protective factor for individuals’ physical health by mitigating the negative effects of social and environmental risk factors. In the present study, we evaluated how attachment styles may moderate the link between African American adolescents’ exposure to neighborhood poverty and accelerated cellular aging in young adulthood. Analyses revealed that allostatic load at age 19 mediated the association between neighborhood poverty in adolescence and changes in cellular aging from age 20 to 27. Notably, attachment avoidance (but not attachment anxiety) moderated this association, such that allostatic load was only associated with faster cellular aging for individuals who were high in avoidance. These findings suggest that allostatic load may give rise to faster cellular aging, but these detrimental effects of allostatic load can be offset by young adults’ effective use of attachment figures.

摘要

依恋经历被认为有助于整个生命周期的身体健康。有证据表明，依恋风格可以通过减轻社会和环境风险因素的负面影响来作为个人身体健康的保护因素。在本研究中，我们评估了依恋风格如何调节非洲裔美国青少年接触社区贫困与青年期加速细胞老化之间的联系。分析显示，19 岁时的异动负荷介导了青春期邻里贫困与 20 至 27 岁细胞衰老变化之间的关联。值得注意的是，依恋回避（但不是依恋焦虑）缓和了这种关联，因此异动负荷仅与更快高回避率的人的细胞老化。