Protective buffering is a coping strategy used in close relationships where one partner conceals concerns, yields during conflicts, or pretends things are fine to shield the other partner from emotional distress.
It can be enacted with self-protective intentions to minimize one’s own distress or with partner-protective intentions to spare the other person.
Defending personal boundaries and freedom concept. Young woman standing and feeling in capsule defending her own private personal boundaries from man vector illustration
Winterheld, H. A. (2017). Hiding feelings for whose sake? Attachment avoidance, relationship connectedness, and protective buffering intentions.Emotion, 17(6), 965 980.https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000291
Key Points
Rationale
Previous research on the protective buffering coping strategy has focused on its negative mental health impacts but neglected important questions about why people use it and for whose benefit (Langer et al., 2009; Suls et al., 1997).
While often assumed to be used to shield partners from distress, protective buffering can also minimize one’s own distress (Langer et al., 2009; Trost, 2005).Attachment theoryoffers a useful framework for examining factors that predict different intentions underlying this strategy.
Highlyavoidantly attached individualslimit distress expressions to maintain distance from partners (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003), but may also do so to uphold positive regard from valued others (Birtchnell, 1988). Their caregiving attempts remain unexplored.
This research tests whether highly avoidant individuals’ connectedness to partners predicts whether they hide distress to self-protect or spare partners based on internalized beliefs about emotional burden.
Distinguishing intentions further allows the examination of links to mental health.
Method
Results
When connected, highly avoidant individuals hide distress to protect partners; when less connected, they hide distress to self-protect. Beliefs about emotional burden underlie their partner-focused buffering.
Insight
These studies break new ground in applying attachment theory to predict nuances in the protective buffering coping strategy based on individual differences and relationship contexts. Highly avoidant individuals seem caught between competing drives for autonomy and relationship stability.
When feeling committed to partners, their beliefs that emotional restraint preserves harmony lead them to shield partners. Yet when connections fray, their default distancing tendencies dominate to self-protect.
Uncovering these dual underlying motives helps explain the mixed mental health outcomes linked to protective buffering in past work – self-protective buffering proves personally and interpersonally costly, but partner-focused buffering appears benign.
This research further attests to the context-sensitive nature of attachment behaviors. Feelings of connectedness can temporarily minimize highly avoidant individuals’ distancing regulation habits that typically maintain autonomy.
Strengths
Limitations
Implications
These findings reveal novel attachment underpinnings of a little-understood relationship maintenance strategy with critical well-being implications.
Additionally, interventions targeting improved communication could teach couples to openly discuss preferences regarding distress disclosure.
References
Primary reference
Winterheld, H. A. (2017). Hiding feelings for whose sake? Attachment avoidance, relationship connectedness, and protective buffering intentions.Emotion, 17(6), 965–980.https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000291
Other references
Birtchnell, J. (1988). Defining dependence.British Journal of Medical Psychology, 61(2), 111-123.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1988.tb02770.x
Langer, S. L., Brown, J. D., & Syrjala, K. L. (2009). Intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of protective buffering among cancer patients and caregivers.Cancer, 115(S18), 4311-4325.https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.24586
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioral system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes.Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 53-152.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(03)01002-5
Suls, J., Green, P., Rose, G., Lounsbury, P., & Gordon, E. (1997). Hiding worries from one’s spouse: Associations between coping via protective buffering and distress in male post-myocardial infarction patients and their wives.Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 20(4), 333-349.https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025513029605
Trost, S. E. (2005).Protective buffering among couples coping with heart disease: Behavior, intentions, and psychological distress(Publication No. 3175748) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
