Adult romantic attachment styles and health-related measures

Abstract

Two studies investigated whether there are differences in how individuals with secure, avoidant or anxious/ambivalent romantic adult attachment styles answer health-related questionnaires. In study 1, 111 young adults were divided into the three categorical Hazan and Shaver (1987) prototypes and completed a measure of coping resources. Individuals with a secure attachment style reported significantly more total coping resources than avoidant and anxious/ambivalent. The same pattern was found for emotional and social sub-scales. There was a different pattern of results for the other sub-scales, with secure reporting more cognitive resources than anxious/ambivalent, but there were no group differences for physical and spiritual/philosophical sub-scales. In study 2, 125 young adults completed the Hazan and Shaver prototypes, a dimensional measure of attachment, and measures of psychological and physical symptoms. The categorical and dimensional measures of adult attachment yielded similar results, with secure attachment associated with low levels of psychological symptoms and anxious/ambivalent associated with high levels of symptoms. There was no association between attachment and physical symptoms. These findings suggest the usefulness of measuring attachment styles when investigating health and coping.