In this study we seek to better understand the experience of children exposed to parental negative conditional regard (NCR), a parenting practice where parents’ emotional availability is contingent on behavioral compliance rather than provided unconditionally. We propose that children parented with greater levels of NCR will show stronger negative reactions (i.e., physiological, subjective appraisal) to situations involving the expression of vulnerability than those parented with lesser levels of NCR, as the former will lack primary regulation strategies (e.g., asking for help), making vulnerability harder to resolve. We expect these children will display stronger reactions to situations involving expressing vulnerability to caregivers as they may fear rejection, after controlling for their responses to vulnerability alone. With a diverse sample of school-aged children (N = 109, 8–12 years of age), we test whether NCR, measured using parent- and child-reports, is associated with children’s negative reactions to hypothetical situations where 1) attachment needs are evoked (experience-only vignettes) and 2) attachment needs are evoked and vulnerability is expressed through help-seeking (HS vignettes). Children’s RSA profiles and subjective appraisals of hypothetical children were collected in a standardized laboratory paradigm. Results indicate that while parent-reported greater caregiver use of NCR was not significantly associated with physiology or appraisals, child-reported NCR was significantly associated with lower RSA and more negative appraisals of the hypothetical child when expressing vulnerability to the caregiver (HS vignettes). Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory in middle childhood.

在这项研究中，我们力求更好地了解暴露于父母消极条件关注 (NCR) 的儿童的经历，这是一种父母的情感可用性取决于行为顺从性而非无条件提供的育儿实践。我们建议，与 NCR 水平较低的孩子相比，NCR 水平较高的孩子对涉及脆弱性表达的情况表现出更强的负面反应（即生理、主观评价），因为前者缺乏主要的调节策略（例如，寻求帮助），使漏洞更难解决。我们预计这些孩子会在单独控制他们对脆弱性的反应后，对涉及向照顾者表达脆弱性的情况表现出更强烈的反应，因为他们可能害怕被拒绝。ñ = 109, 8-12 岁），我们测试使用父母和孩子报告测量的 NCR 是否与孩子对以下假设情况的负面反应相关：1）依恋需求被唤起（仅体验小插曲）和 2）依恋需求被唤起，脆弱性通过寻求帮助来表达（HS小插曲）。以标准化的实验室范式收集儿童的 RSA 概况和对假设儿童的主观评价。结果表明，虽然父母报告的更多照顾者使用 NCR 与生理或评估没有显着相关性，但儿童报告的 NCR 与较低的 RSA 显着相关，并且在表达对照顾者的脆弱性时对假设儿童的更多负面评估（HS 小插曲）。