Attachment-related anxiety and avoidance and regulation of interpersonal distance in close relationships

Abstract

We tested the relationships between attachment related anxiety and avoidance and interpersonal distance with significant others (mother, father, close friend, love target), as well as, the childhood self. One hundred seventy four university students (85 male and 89 female; average age was 23.90 years, SD = 4.42; 24 [13.8%] were married) participated in the study. They completed Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures questionnaire (ECR-RS), followed by a computerized version of the comfortable interpersonal distance (CID) task in both the passive state (when protagonists approached them) and the active state (when they approached targets). We asked participants to determine the point at which they felt uncomfortable (the discomfort point) and the point at which they wanted to stop the protagonist (the stop point). Analyses revealed that: (1) Global avoidance scores predicted individuals’ distance to parents, whereas global anxiety scores predicted distance to future love’s view and childhood self; (2) As avoidance increased, individuals allowed their parents to intrude more into their personal spaces; (3) Attachment anxiety and avoidance predicted the passive state better than the active state.