Nancy L Collins
Biographic Data
| ID | 94565 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nancy L Collins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nancy L |
| FAMILY NAME | Collins |
| SIGNATURE | COLLINS N L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3670-6745 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1346 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Communicative and Methodological Challenges Related to Collecting Data with Older Adults with Dementia in Senior Living Communities During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to researchers collecting data with older adults, particularly older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). The goal of this article is to articulate the communicative and methodological challenges and lessons learned from collecting data with older adults in senior living communities with mild cognitive impairment and ADRD and their adult children (who were geographica…
The Impact of Social Support on Thriving and Health in Sexually‐Diverse and Gender‐Diverse Populations
Sexually and gender diverse (SGD) populations—an inclusive term for LGBTQ+—experience elevated stress and disproportionate physical and psychological health burdens. However, the way these burdens are anticipated, experienced, and internalized varies across individuals and social contexts. While prior research has primarily focused on how psychosocial resources buffer the negative effects of minority stress, less attention has been given to how t…
Using Virtual Reality to Improve the Quality of Life of Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments and their Family Members who Live at a Distance
This study examines whether using virtual reality (VR) with older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild to moderate dementia with a family member who lives at a distance can improve the quality of life of the older adult and the family member. Twenty-one older adults in a senior living community and a family member (who participated in the VR with the older adult from a distance) engaged in a baseline telephone call, followed by thr…
Meta‐analytic evidence that attachment insecurity is associated with less frequent experiences of discrete positive emotions
Our results underscore the need to further investigate the mechanisms underlying insecure individuals' blunted positive emotional experiences
Cognitive Training with Neurofeedback Using fNirs Improves Cognitive Function in Older Adults
This study examined the effects of a 4-week cognitive training program with neurofeedback (CT-NF) among 86 healthy adults (M = 66.34 years, range 54-84) randomized to either a treatment (app-based ABC games) or control (Tetris) group. Participants completed seven cognitive assessments, pre- and post-intervention, and measured their cortical brain activity using a XB-01 functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) brain sensor, while engaging in …
Interpersonal mechanisms linking close relationships to health
Close relationships play a vital role in human health, but much remains to be learned about specific mechanisms of action and potential avenues for intervention. This article provides an evaluation of research on close relationships processes relevant to health, drawing on themes from major relationship science theories to present a broad conceptual framework for understanding the interpersonal processes and intrapersonal pathways linking relatio…
Language Style Matching in Romantic Partners' Conflict and Support Interactions
This study examined the association between language style matching (LSM), subjective perceptions of interaction quality (perceived responsiveness and affect), and partner behavior in two communication contexts: conflict and social support. Romantic couples ( N = 91) engaged in a video-recorded discussion of either a relationship stressor or one partner's personal stressor (a social support discussion). LSM was associated with unique outcomes in …
A New Look at Social Support: A Theoretical Perspective on Thriving Through Relationships
Close and caring relationships are undeniably linked to health and well-being at all stages in the life span. Yet the specific pathways through which close relationships promote optimal well-being are not well understood. In this article, we present a model of thriving through relationships to provide a theoretical foundation for identifying the specific interpersonal processes that underlie the effects of close relationships on thriving. This mo…
Self-Models and Relationship Threat: A Test of Risk Regulation Mechanisms
This study investigated a key claim of risk regulation theory, namely, that psychological internalizing of a relationship threat will serve as a mediator of the link between self-models (self-esteem and attachment anxiety) and relationship responses (moving closer to a partner vs. distancing from a partner). Participants ( N = 101) received feedback that threatened their current romantic relationship (or no feedback) and then completed measures o…
Psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses to a partner in need: The role of compassionate love
This study examined the role of compassionate love (CL) in shaping cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to partner distress ( N = 56 couples). One member of each couple (the support provider) observed his/her partner perform an easy or difficult stress task (designed to vary signals of partner distress). Support providers in the difficult (vs. easy) condition showed more partner focus, emotional distress, and blood pressu…
Self-esteem Moderates the Effects of Daily Rejection on Health and Well-being
A daily diary methodology was used to investigate the effects of rejection on daily health and well-being as well as the moderating role of self-esteem. Participants completed an online diary for two weeks, reporting on rejection, mental well-being/resources, risky health behaviors, and health-related outcomes. Overall, daily rejection was associated with decreases in mental well-being/resources but not with health behaviors or health-related out…
Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world
Reducing defensive distancing: Self-affirmation and risk regulation in response to relationship threats
Self-esteem moderates neuroendocrine and psychological responses to interpersonal rejection
In this study, the authors investigated self-esteem as a moderator of psychological and physiological responses to interpersonal rejection and tested an integrative model detailing the mechanisms by which self-esteem may influence cognitive, affective, and physiological responses. Seventy-eight participants experienced an ambiguous interpersonal rejection (or no rejection) from an opposite sex partner in the context of an online dating interactio…
Responding to the needs of others: The caregiving behavioral system in intimate relationships
The caregiving behavioral system has been identified as a vital component of adult attachment bonds, but until recently it has received relatively little attention in the adult attachment literature. In this article, we review recent theoretical and empirical developments on caregiving dynamics in adult intimate relationships, focusing on normative processes and individual differences. In doing so, we discuss the factors that facilitate or impede…
Feeling supported and feeling satisfied: How one partner's attachment style predicts the other partner's relationship experiences
This study explored the association between one partner's attachment style and the other partner's relationship experiences (N = 305 couples). It was hypothesized that individuals would be more satisfied in their relationship when their partners were more secure (lower in attachment avoidance and anxiety), and that this association would be mediated by perceived caregiving. Results indicated that men were less satisfied when their female partners…
Working Models of Attachment and Attribution Processes in Intimate Relationships
Two studies examined the link between working models of attachment and social construal processes in romantic relationships. In Study 1, individuals high in attachment-related anxiety responded to hypothetical partner transgressions by endorsing relationship-threatening attributions, experiencing emotional distress, and endorsing behavioral intentions that were likely to result in conflict. These effects emerged after controlling for pessimistic …
Risk and resilience: Dual effects of perceptions of group disadvantage among Latinos
Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships
A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how people balance the goal of seeking closeness to a romantic partner against the opposing goal of minimizing the likelihood and pain of rejection. The central premise is that confidence in a partner's positive regard and caring allows people to risk seeking dependence and connectedness. The risk regulation system consists of 3 interconnected "if--then" contingency rules, 1 cognitive, 1 affective…
Working Models of Attachment Shape Perceptions of Social Support: Evidence From Experimental and Observational Studies
Two studies examined the association between attachment style and perceptions of social support. Study 1 (N = 95 couples) used an experimental paradigm to manipulate social support in the context of a stressful task. Insecure participants (anxious and avoidant) who received low-support messages appraised these messages more negatively, rated a prior behavioral interaction with their partner as having been less supportive, and performed significan…
Motivations for Caregiving in Adult Intimate Relationships: Influences on Caregiving Behavior and Relationship Functioning
This study identified and examined the correlates of specific motivations for caregiving in romantic couples (N = 194 couples). At Time 1, couple members completed measures assessing motivations for caregiving, the quality of caregiving that occurs in the relationship, and personal and relationship characteristics that might influence caregiving motivations. Relationship functioning was then assessed 2 to 3 months later. Results revealed that (a)…
Psychosocial Vulnerability From Adolescence to Adulthood: A Prospective Study of Attachment Style Differences in Relationship Functioning and Partner Choice
Using a prospective research design, this study explored whether attachment style during adolescence forecasts the nature and quality of romantic relationships in early adulthood and investigated two general pathways for explaining these effects. Black and White community residents were first interviewed in adolescence at which time they completed a self‐report measure of attachment style. Approximately 6 years later, they participated in a follo…
Predictors of caregiving in adult intimate relationships: An attachment theoretical perspective
Romantic couples (N = 194) participated in an investigation of caregiving processes in adulthood. In Phase 1, couple members completed questionnaires designed to identify attachment style differences in caregiving behavior and to explore the underlying (personal and relationship) mechanisms that lead people with different attachment styles to be effective or ineffective caregivers. Results revealed that social support knowledge, prosocial orienta…
A safe haven: An attachment theory perspective on support seeking and caregiving in intimate relationships
Mediators of ethnic-associated differences in infant birth weight
Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples
Three studies were conducted to examine the correlates of adult attachment. In Study 1, an 18-item scale to measure adult attachment style dimensions was developed based on Kazan and Shaver's (1987) categorical measure. Factor analyses revealed three dimensions underlying this measure: the extent to which an individual is comfortable with closeness, feels he or she can depend on others, and is anxious or fearful about such things as being abandon…
A safe haven: An attachment theory perspective on support seeking and caregiving in intimate relationships
Working models of attachment: Implications for explanation, emotion, and behavior
Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships
A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how people balance the goal of seeking closeness to a romantic partner against the opposing goal of minimizing the likelihood and pain of rejection. The central premise is that confidence in a partner's positive regard and caring allows people to risk seeking dependence and connectedness. The risk regulation system consists of 3 interconnected "if--then" contingency rules, 1 cognitive, 1 affective…
Working Models of Attachment Shape Perceptions of Social Support: Evidence From Experimental and Observational Studies
Two studies examined the association between attachment style and perceptions of social support. Study 1 (N = 95 couples) used an experimental paradigm to manipulate social support in the context of a stressful task. Insecure participants (anxious and avoidant) who received low-support messages appraised these messages more negatively, rated a prior behavioral interaction with their partner as having been less supportive, and performed significan…
Predictors of caregiving in adult intimate relationships: An attachment theoretical perspective
Romantic couples (N = 194) participated in an investigation of caregiving processes in adulthood. In Phase 1, couple members completed questionnaires designed to identify attachment style differences in caregiving behavior and to explore the underlying (personal and relationship) mechanisms that lead people with different attachment styles to be effective or ineffective caregivers. Results revealed that social support knowledge, prosocial orienta…
Attachment styles, emotion regulation, and adjustment in adolescence
Attachment style differences in psychological symptomatology, self-concept, and risky or problem behaviors were examined in a community sample (N = 1,989) of Black and White adolescents, 13 to 19 years old. Overall, secure adolescents were the best-adjusted group, though not necessarily the least likely to engage in risky behaviors. Anxious adolescents were the worst-adjusted group, reporting the poorest self-concepts and the highest levels of sy…
Social support in pregnancy: Psychosocial correlates of birth outcomes and postpartum depression
Interpersonal mechanisms linking close relationships to health
Close relationships play a vital role in human health, but much remains to be learned about specific mechanisms of action and potential avenues for intervention. This article provides an evaluation of research on close relationships processes relevant to health, drawing on themes from major relationship science theories to present a broad conceptual framework for understanding the interpersonal processes and intrapersonal pathways linking relatio…
Adult Attachment Styles, Perceived Social Support and Coping Strategies
The relations between adult attachment styles, perceived social support and the use of various coping strategies was examined in a sample of young adults (N = 81). Participants completed measures of adult attachment style, perceived social support from friends and family, and a modified version of the Ways of Coping scale. In addition, participants rated the coping strategies they would most likely use in response to a series of hypothetical vign…
Prenatal health behaviors and psychosocial risk factors in pregnant women of Mexican origin: The role of acculturation
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between acculturation of Mexican-origin women and factors in low birthweight and preterm delivery. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 911 Mexican-origin respondents in Los Angeles prenatal care clinics. Infant outcome data were retrieved from delivery records. RESULTS: Mexican-American women had generally more undesirable prenatal behaviors and risk factors than Mexican-immigrant women. Althoug…
Feeling supported and feeling satisfied: How one partner's attachment style predicts the other partner's relationship experiences
This study explored the association between one partner's attachment style and the other partner's relationship experiences (N = 305 couples). It was hypothesized that individuals would be more satisfied in their relationship when their partners were more secure (lower in attachment avoidance and anxiety), and that this association would be mediated by perceived caregiving. Results indicated that men were less satisfied when their female partners…
Responding to the needs of others: The caregiving behavioral system in intimate relationships
The caregiving behavioral system has been identified as a vital component of adult attachment bonds, but until recently it has received relatively little attention in the adult attachment literature. In this article, we review recent theoretical and empirical developments on caregiving dynamics in adult intimate relationships, focusing on normative processes and individual differences. In doing so, we discuss the factors that facilitate or impede…
Risk and resilience: Dual effects of perceptions of group disadvantage among Latinos
Psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses to a partner in need: The role of compassionate love
This study examined the role of compassionate love (CL) in shaping cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to partner distress ( N = 56 couples). One member of each couple (the support provider) observed his/her partner perform an easy or difficult stress task (designed to vary signals of partner distress). Support providers in the difficult (vs. easy) condition showed more partner focus, emotional distress, and blood pressu…
Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world
Self-esteem moderates neuroendocrine and psychological responses to interpersonal rejection
In this study, the authors investigated self-esteem as a moderator of psychological and physiological responses to interpersonal rejection and tested an integrative model detailing the mechanisms by which self-esteem may influence cognitive, affective, and physiological responses. Seventy-eight participants experienced an ambiguous interpersonal rejection (or no rejection) from an opposite sex partner in the context of an online dating interactio…
Language Style Matching in Romantic Partners' Conflict and Support Interactions
This study examined the association between language style matching (LSM), subjective perceptions of interaction quality (perceived responsiveness and affect), and partner behavior in two communication contexts: conflict and social support. Romantic couples ( N = 91) engaged in a video-recorded discussion of either a relationship stressor or one partner's personal stressor (a social support discussion). LSM was associated with unique outcomes in …
Reducing defensive distancing: Self-affirmation and risk regulation in response to relationship threats
Mediators of ethnic-associated differences in infant birth weight
When Is the Federal Budget Like a Baby? Metaphor in Political Rhetoric
The effect of metaphor on responses to political communications was examined. In Study 1, we investigated whether a metaphor could increase memory for a passage and whether the effect might be greater when the passage was heard rather than read. Also examined were the relative effects of having the metaphor present at encoding, at recall, both, or neither. Participants either read or listened to four short passages. For half of the subjects, each…
Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples
Three studies were conducted to examine the correlates of adult attachment. In Study 1, an 18-item scale to measure adult attachment style dimensions was developed based on Kazan and Shaver's (1987) categorical measure. Factor analyses revealed three dimensions underlying this measure: the extent to which an individual is comfortable with closeness, feels he or she can depend on others, and is anxious or fearful about such things as being abandon…
Controlling Correlational Bias via Confirmatory Factor Analysis of MTMM Data
Confirmatory factor analysis of multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data has proven to be a useful tool for assessing convergent and discriminant validity. However, researchers have not made full use of the results of MTMM analyses in examining the relationship between MTMM factors and variables outside the MTMM. Often, researchers simply average the various measures of each trait. Alternatively, they estimate LISREL MTMM models, but estimate only rela…
Social support in pregnancy: Psychosocial correlates of birth outcomes and postpartum depression
Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review
Self-disclosure plays a central role in the development and maintenance of relationships. One way that researchers have explored these processes is by studying the links between self-disclosure and liking. Using meta-analytic procedures, the present work sought to clarify and review this literature by evaluating the evidence for 3 distinct disclosure-liking effects. Significant disclosure-liking relations were found for each effect: (a) People wh…
Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review
Working models of attachment: Implications for explanation, emotion, and behavior
Prenatal health behaviors and psychosocial risk factors in pregnant women of Mexican origin: The role of acculturation
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between acculturation of Mexican-origin women and factors in low birthweight and preterm delivery. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 911 Mexican-origin respondents in Los Angeles prenatal care clinics. Infant outcome data were retrieved from delivery records. RESULTS: Mexican-American women had generally more undesirable prenatal behaviors and risk factors than Mexican-immigrant women. Althoug…
Attachment styles, emotion regulation, and adjustment in adolescence
Attachment style differences in psychological symptomatology, self-concept, and risky or problem behaviors were examined in a community sample (N = 1,989) of Black and White adolescents, 13 to 19 years old. Overall, secure adolescents were the best-adjusted group, though not necessarily the least likely to engage in risky behaviors. Anxious adolescents were the worst-adjusted group, reporting the poorest self-concepts and the highest levels of sy…
Adult Attachment Styles, Perceived Social Support and Coping Strategies
The relations between adult attachment styles, perceived social support and the use of various coping strategies was examined in a sample of young adults (N = 81). Participants completed measures of adult attachment style, perceived social support from friends and family, and a modified version of the Ways of Coping scale. In addition, participants rated the coping strategies they would most likely use in response to a series of hypothetical vign…
Mediators of ethnic-associated differences in infant birth weight
A safe haven: An attachment theory perspective on support seeking and caregiving in intimate relationships
Predictors of caregiving in adult intimate relationships: An attachment theoretical perspective
Romantic couples (N = 194) participated in an investigation of caregiving processes in adulthood. In Phase 1, couple members completed questionnaires designed to identify attachment style differences in caregiving behavior and to explore the underlying (personal and relationship) mechanisms that lead people with different attachment styles to be effective or ineffective caregivers. Results revealed that social support knowledge, prosocial orienta…
Psychosocial Vulnerability From Adolescence to Adulthood: A Prospective Study of Attachment Style Differences in Relationship Functioning and Partner Choice
Using a prospective research design, this study explored whether attachment style during adolescence forecasts the nature and quality of romantic relationships in early adulthood and investigated two general pathways for explaining these effects. Black and White community residents were first interviewed in adolescence at which time they completed a self‐report measure of attachment style. Approximately 6 years later, they participated in a follo…
Motivations for Caregiving in Adult Intimate Relationships: Influences on Caregiving Behavior and Relationship Functioning
This study identified and examined the correlates of specific motivations for caregiving in romantic couples (N = 194 couples). At Time 1, couple members completed measures assessing motivations for caregiving, the quality of caregiving that occurs in the relationship, and personal and relationship characteristics that might influence caregiving motivations. Relationship functioning was then assessed 2 to 3 months later. Results revealed that (a)…
Working Models of Attachment Shape Perceptions of Social Support: Evidence From Experimental and Observational Studies
Two studies examined the association between attachment style and perceptions of social support. Study 1 (N = 95 couples) used an experimental paradigm to manipulate social support in the context of a stressful task. Insecure participants (anxious and avoidant) who received low-support messages appraised these messages more negatively, rated a prior behavioral interaction with their partner as having been less supportive, and performed significan…
Working Models of Attachment and Attribution Processes in Intimate Relationships
Two studies examined the link between working models of attachment and social construal processes in romantic relationships. In Study 1, individuals high in attachment-related anxiety responded to hypothetical partner transgressions by endorsing relationship-threatening attributions, experiencing emotional distress, and endorsing behavioral intentions that were likely to result in conflict. These effects emerged after controlling for pessimistic …
Risk and resilience: Dual effects of perceptions of group disadvantage among Latinos
Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships
A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how people balance the goal of seeking closeness to a romantic partner against the opposing goal of minimizing the likelihood and pain of rejection. The central premise is that confidence in a partner's positive regard and caring allows people to risk seeking dependence and connectedness. The risk regulation system consists of 3 interconnected "if--then" contingency rules, 1 cognitive, 1 affective…
Feeling supported and feeling satisfied: How one partner's attachment style predicts the other partner's relationship experiences
This study explored the association between one partner's attachment style and the other partner's relationship experiences (N = 305 couples). It was hypothesized that individuals would be more satisfied in their relationship when their partners were more secure (lower in attachment avoidance and anxiety), and that this association would be mediated by perceived caregiving. Results indicated that men were less satisfied when their female partners…
Reducing defensive distancing: Self-affirmation and risk regulation in response to relationship threats
Self-esteem moderates neuroendocrine and psychological responses to interpersonal rejection
In this study, the authors investigated self-esteem as a moderator of psychological and physiological responses to interpersonal rejection and tested an integrative model detailing the mechanisms by which self-esteem may influence cognitive, affective, and physiological responses. Seventy-eight participants experienced an ambiguous interpersonal rejection (or no rejection) from an opposite sex partner in the context of an online dating interactio…
Responding to the needs of others: The caregiving behavioral system in intimate relationships
The caregiving behavioral system has been identified as a vital component of adult attachment bonds, but until recently it has received relatively little attention in the adult attachment literature. In this article, we review recent theoretical and empirical developments on caregiving dynamics in adult intimate relationships, focusing on normative processes and individual differences. In doing so, we discuss the factors that facilitate or impede…
Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world
Self-esteem Moderates the Effects of Daily Rejection on Health and Well-being
A daily diary methodology was used to investigate the effects of rejection on daily health and well-being as well as the moderating role of self-esteem. Participants completed an online diary for two weeks, reporting on rejection, mental well-being/resources, risky health behaviors, and health-related outcomes. Overall, daily rejection was associated with decreases in mental well-being/resources but not with health behaviors or health-related out…
Psychology (31 works) · Social Psychology (25 works) · Developmental psychology (22 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (21 works) · Clinical Psychology (12 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (11 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Attachment theory (9 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Social support (8 works)