How affect regulation moderates the association between anxious attachment and neuroticism

Abstract

Correlations between anxious attachment and neuroticism (usually about .40 to .50) prompt questions about whether self-reported anxious attachment captures a key construct in attachment theory or if it reflects a more general personality trait instead. A college sample of late adolescents and young adults (N = 287) was used to show that questionnaire measures of neuroticism and anxious attachment do not have a simple linear association; instead, neuroticism and anxious attachment have a more complex dynamic relationship that is moderated by avoidant attachment, an attachment style that reflects an interpersonally derived strategy for affect regulation. The association between neuroticism and anxious attachment is further moderated by conscientiousness, a personality trait that may reflect a more biologically mediated system of affect regulation. These separate moderating effects and the different affect regulation systems they reflect are discussed in the context of longstanding debates about how personality traits and attachment styles influence each other.