Psychologists say adults who still carry childhood keepsakes aren't simply nostalgic, but often use them to regulate emotions during stressful situations, according to a research

That worn-out teddy on your bookshelf, or the blanket you can’t quite bring yourself to throw away, isn’t clutter. The study published in Healthcare, titled, ‘Exploring the Relationship Between Transitional Object Attachment and Emotion Regulation in College Students,’ by researchers Cheng-Hung Ko, Yong-Ting Liang, Yu-Chi Liao, and Hui-Fang Chen, based at institutions in Taiwan and at the City University of Hong Kong, has found that college-age adults who still have a tie to their childhood comfort objects show measurable physical signs of stress recovery when holding them during a stressful moment. The study included 45 participants, 18-22 years old.

What the researchers actually found
As planned in the study, participants were divided into groups depending on whether they had a lasting attachment to a childhood object, and the attached group was further divided into participants who were allowed to touch their object during a stress-recovery period, and participants who were only allowed to keep it nearby. That setup mattered because the only clear divergence appeared in the recovery period, when physical contact with the object was allowed. All participants filled out a standard questionnaire about their perceived ability to regulate their emotions.

That self-reported measure revealed no real difference between the groups: people with a cherished object did not rate themselves as calmer or better at coping than those without one.

But the physiological data told a different story for the body. Scientists measured heart rate variability, a classic indicator of how rapidly the nervous system relaxes after stress, and found that the group that physically touched their object during recovery showed greater signs of relaxation than the group that could only keep the object nearby. People’s descriptions of their own emotional regulation didn’t change with object attachment, but their physiological stress response did, the researchers say, hinting that the objects could help recovery via touch rather than just memory or sentiment.

The physiological effect was captured by measurement of heart-rate-variability (SDNN) and respiratory rate at baseline, stress, and recovery. The carry-and-touch group had higher SDNN during recovery than the carry-but-cannot-touch group, suggesting that direct contact helped the nervous system to settle faster even when self-reports remained flat.

The idea goes back to the 1950s
It is not an entirely new idea in psychology. The idea of the “transitional object” was first proposed in the early 1950s by the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. He explained how babies use a blanket or a stuffed toy for comfort when their parent is absent. According to Psychology Today's overview of Winnicott's work, he believed most people would outgrow these objects. The outlet also said many adults hold onto the same type of attachment well into adulthood, and that it does not mean they are immature.

Why isn't this just nostalgia
There is a difference between missing something from the past and using something in the moment to get through a rough moment. Nostalgia is looking back, but according to newer research, what’s going on here is much more functional: a physical item helping the body settle down in real time, during an actual stressful situation, not just when someone is reminiscing.

This lines up with older thinking in consumer psychology. According to Russell Belk's widely cited 1988 paper, ‘Possessions and the Extended Self,’ published in the Journal of Consumer Research, people don’t just own their stuff; they often use it to help define who they are. Things associated with personal history, such as a childhood security blanket, can become part of an extended identity rather than being purely sentimental, Belk explains, which may help explain why some adults hold onto these objects well into adulthood. In Belk's larger schema, this notion of the "extended self" stretches far beyond childhood memorabilia to include our homes, our cars, our collections, and the people we are closest to, all of which we can fold into a sense of who we are.

It doesn't mean you're stuck in the past
The Healthcare study saw no evidence, either, that attachment to objects was related to poorer emotional health. Instead, the authors describe those items as potential “adaptive tools for stress management” in young adults, something to be taken seriously rather than dismissed as childish.

In other words, the benefit they perceived was not just sentimental; tactile contact with the object seemed to help physiological recovery from stress without any sign of poorer emotional health.

It's worth noting the scope of this research. The study’s own limitations show that the sample of 45 college students is relatively small and the researchers would probably welcome larger, more varied samples to confirm the pattern. That doesn't mean everyone must have a childhood object to cope with, nor that those without one are missing out on something significant.

The takeaway
So the next time you reach for that old keepsake before a big presentation or a hard week, you're not necessarily being sentimental. The research suggests you may be doing something your nervous system actually responds to: stabilizing your body in the moment rather than ruminating on the past.