INFLUENCE OF ATTACHMENT STYLES ON MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG MARRIED COUPLES

Abstract

Researchers are interested in marital satisfaction since it is signicant for couples' psychological well-being. They have been studying the factors that lead to a happy marriage for a long time. Adult attachment styles, according to the prior study, serve an active role in forming an intimate relationship. The purpose of the current study was to examine the inuence of adult attachment styles (Secure, Fearful, Dismissive, and Preoccupied) on marital satisfaction among Indian married couples. 304 respondents (152 females & 152 males) from various cities across India participated in the study. To assess the participants' attachment styles and marital satisfaction, the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins, 1996) and ENRICH-SF Marital Satisfaction Scale (Fowers, & Olson, 1993) were used respectively. The statistical analysis was determined using the Chisquare, Kruskal-Wallis One way ANOVAand Mann-Whitney U tests. Results showed that the respondents with secure and dismissive attachment styles had higher marital satisfaction than the respondents with preoccupied and fearful attachment styles. The study found that male and female subjects did not differ signicantly in their attachment styles and marital satisfaction. However, participants who were married for more than 20 years were more in number to have experienced a secure attachment style and they had higher marital satisfaction. Psychotherapists and counsellors in general, and couple therapists in particular, will benet from the current research. Further study will aid in a better understanding of this nding.