Adult attachment and history of psychotherapy in a normative sample.

Abstract

The willingness to trust and self-disclose to others, key aspects in the decision to seek psychotherapy, is expected to vary across attachment classifications. The current study examined the association between internal working models of attachment and history of psychotherapy in a middle-class sample of 120 women, who were administered the Adult Attachment Interview (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1985/1996) and the Mental Health Survey (S. A. Riggs & D. Jacobvitz, 2002). Findings supported predictions that security of attachment is linked to history of psychotherapy. Specifically, adults classified as Dismissing were less likely than other adults to report a history of psychotherapy, whereas Secure adults reported the highest rates of couples therapy. A key feature of attachment theory is the principle of continuity, which posits that the way attachment behavior becomes organized in childhood as a strategy for relating to others is carried forward and profoundly influences subsequent behavior in later life (Bowlby, 1980). According to Bowlby (1979), although the organization of attachment behavior develops in infancy and is most obvious in early childhood, it can be observed throughout the life cycle, especially in times of stress and emergency. Considerable agreement exists among attachment theorists that children develop mental representations of themselves, others, and relationships (i.e., the internal working model) through repeated interactions with their caregiver, and it is this internal working model that is carried forward to influence interpersonal relationships in adulthood (Sroufe, 1986; Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986). Based on Bowlby’s contention that attachment behavior is especially activated during stressful periods, Lopez (1995) hypothesized that adult attachment patterns should influence the adaptive mobilization of social support during the stress–coping process. However, the decision to seek social support and more specifically to seek assistance from a mental health professional or benefit from such experiences may depend on the belief that others are capable of providing care and comfort (Bowlby, 1988; Farber, Lippert, & Nevas, 1995; Slade, 1999), a view that is not expected to be consistent across the different attachment categories. Lopez, Melendez, Sauer, Berger, and Wyssman (1998) found that college students with selfreported dismissive and fearful romantic attachment styles were less willing to seek therapy than students with secure or preoccupied romantic attachment styles. We sought to extend Lopez et al.’s findings regarding the associations between differential help-seeking attitudes and internal Shelley A. Riggs, Department of Psychology, University of North Texas; Deborah Jacobvitz and Nancy Hazen, Department of Human Ecology, University of Texas at Austin. This study was part of the Partners and Parents Project, led by Deborah Jacobvitz and Nancy Hazen in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. The project was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SRB-9212990125 and by a grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. We are grateful to the parents for investing time in this project. We would also like to thank Lloyd Berg for helping to develop the Mental Health Survey and Holly Koehler for coding numerous interview transcripts. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Shelley A. Riggs, PhD, Department of Psychology, Post Office Box 311280, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203–1280. E-mail: riggs@unt.edu PROD #: 211.003