Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Sep 21;17(18):6880. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186880.
Attachment insecurity is consequential for both personal and relationship wellbeing. Some research has documented that partner buffering can downregulate insecure individuals' immediate feelings of distress, allowing them to feel more secure at least temporarily. The benefits of partner buffering, however, may be limited by several contextual factors. In this article, we identify boundary conditions that may curb or amplify the benefits of partner buffering for both targets (those who receive buffering) and agents (those who enact buffering). We suggest that motivation, ability, and timing may all affect partner buffering outcomes for targets and agents. If partner buffering is delivered in an adaptive way that does not reinforce the target's insecure tendencies, it may help insecure targets learn that they can trust and depend on their partners (agents), which may facilitate greater security in targets. We recommend that future research consider these contextual factors and examine partner buffering as an inherently dyadic relationship process capable of enhancing attachment security.
依恋不安全感对个人和人际关系的幸福都有影响。一些研究记录表明，伴侣缓冲可以调节不安全感个体的即时痛苦感受，使他们至少暂时感到更安全。然而，伴侣缓冲的好处可能受到几个情境因素的限制。在本文中，我们确定了可能限制或放大缓冲对目标（接受缓冲的人）和代理人（实施缓冲的人）的好处的边界条件。我们认为动机、能力和时机都可能影响目标和代理人的伴侣缓冲结果。如果伴侣缓冲是以一种不强化目标不安全感倾向的适应性方式提供的，它可能有助于不安全感的目标了解到他们可以信任和依赖他们的伴侣（代理人），这可能促进目标的更大安全感。我们建议未来的研究考虑这些情境因素，并将伴侣缓冲视为一种能够增强依恋安全感的固有二元关系过程。
