Effects Of Attachment Style Research Articles

Predicting marital satisfaction from the attachment styles and gender of a culturally and religiously homogenous population

The study investigated the influence of attachment styles and gender on marital satisfaction. One hundred and fifty participants (73 males and 77females) were randomly selected from members of a Christian organization, Ewet Offot and indigenous residents of Nwaniba Road, Uyo. Two instruments used were the Love (2001) Attachment Style Survey and Hudson (1982) Index of Marital Satisfaction adapted by Anene (1994) for Nigerian use. A 2x2 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for unequal sample sizes was used for data analysis.Two hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis predicted a statistically significant difference in marital satisfaction between participants with secure and insecure attachment styles while the second hypothesis made a similar prediction in respect of gender. The first finding showed a significant difference between participants with secure and insecure attachment styles on maritalsatisfaction [F(1,146) = 360.21, P.05]. The interaction effect of attachment styles and gender was however found to be significant [F(1,146) = 5.00, P

Transfer of Attachment Functions and Adjustment Among Young Adults in China

ABSTRACT This study was designed to examine the process of attachment transfer from parents to peers, as well as factors related to this transfer process among Mainland Chinese. A total of 147 Chinese college students (with a mean age of 21.44) completed questionnaires that measured attachment style, attachment transfer, attachment support from various figures, loneliness, positive/negative affects, and self-esteem. Major findings of the current study include the following: (a) Hazan and Shaver's sequential model of attachment transfer was generalized to the Chinese sample; (b) the extent of attachment transfer was found to be associated with participants' emotional states (loneliness and positive affect) and was a significant predictor of these emotional states beyond the effects of attachment style and attachment support. As one of the first studies exploring the phenomenon of attachment transfer among young Chinese adults, conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Unwanted Pursuit in Same-Sex Relationships: Effects of Attachment Styles, Investment Model Variables, and Sexual Minority Stressors

This study examined the frequency and antecedents of unwanted pursuit in the intimate relationships of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals. Analyses were conducted separately for disengagers (individuals who wanted to end a relationship when the other partner did not want to let go) and rejected partners (individuals who wanted to hold on to a relationship that the other person was trying to end). One hundred percent of disengagers reported having experienced at least one unwanted pursuit behavior, and 87.7% of rejected partners reported engaging in at least one unwanted pursuit behavior. Among rejected partners, anxious attachment positively predicted pursuit behaviors; and, among disengagers, avoidant attachment negatively predicted being the target of aggressive behaviors. Investment in the relationship predicted pursuit as reported by disengagers and rejected partners. In addition, lifetime experiences with minority stressors predicted being the target of pursuit among disengagers. The findings expand on earlier research about how personality variables and relationship beliefs affect unwanted pursuit. It also demonstrates how sexual minorities face extra challenges when one partner wants to break up and the other partner does not want the relationship to end.

The Effects of Attachment Styles, Problem-Solving Skills, and Communication Skills on Relationship Satisfaction

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of being secure or insecure, being an effective or ineffective problem solver, and having effective or ineffective communication skills on different dimensions of relationship satisfaction. The participants of the present study were 142 undergraduate and graduate students with a mean of 21.8 years. Multivariate Analysis of Variance results revealed a significant Attachment Style main effect on dyadic cohesion and dyadic satisfaction, and a significant interaction effect for Effectiveness of Problem Solving Skills x Level of Conflict Tendency. The results were discussed in the light of the existing literature.

Why Do I Study? The Moderating Effect of Attachment Style on Academic Motivation

ABSTRACT Past research has shown the importance of considering close others' interests when pursuing goals, but no research has examined potential moderators of this effect. Two studies examined how attachment style moderates the association between reasons for studying and academic outcomes. In Study 1, 119 participants reported their attachment style, the reasons why they study, and their study habits. As predicted, the association between relational reasons and studying was positive for secure individuals and negative for avoidant individuals. In Study 2, 195 participants reported their attachment style and reasons for studying, as well as their GPA and academic well-being. As predicted, the association between relational reasons and GPA was positive for secure individuals, whereas the associations between personal reasons for studying and academic well-being were positive for avoidant individuals. These results indicate the importance of considering individual differences as moderators of the association between goal motives and outcomes.

Understanding Sexual Perpetration Against Children: Effects of Attachment Style, Interpersonal Involvement, and Hypersexuality

This study explores in an adolescent sample hypotheses about child sexual abuse perpetration drawn from contemporary theories that implicate insecure attachment and adolescent social development. Specifically, three 13- to 18-year-old adolescent male samples (sex offenders with child victims, sex offenders with peer/adult victims, and nonsex delinquent youth) were compared in a cross-sectional design. Participants completed a computer-administered self-report questionnaire and a semistructured attachment style interview. Attachment style was coded by two independent raters blind to study hypotheses and group membership. The results indicated an indirect effect for attachment style. Attachment anxiety affected involvement with peers and interpersonal adequacy. Feelings of interpersonal inadequacy, combined with oversexualization and positive attitudes toward others distinguished sex offenders with child victims from nonsex delinquents and from sex offenders with peer/adult victims. These data provide a preliminary model of sexual abuse perpetration consistent with contemporary theories. Attachment anxiety with a lack of misanthropic attitudes toward others appears to lead to isolation from peers and feelings of interpersonal inadequacy. Individuals with this constellation of factors may turn to children to meet their intimacy and sexual needs, both of which seem to be exaggerated compared with other troubled youth.

The Effects of Attachment Styles and Efficacy of Communication on Avoidance Following a Relational Partner's Deception

This investigation examined the effects of attachment styles and efficacy of communication on avoidance following a relational partner's deceptive communication. Efficacy of communication was explored as a mediating variable. Students (n = 123) who reported being deceived by their relational partner were recruited for the study. The data revealed that, compared to individuals with other attachment styles, those with a high anxious/ambivalent attachment tendency were more likely to avoid discussing the deception with their partner. In addition, efficacy of communication was negatively associated with avoidance. The results further revealed, however, that efficacy of communication mediated the link between attachment and avoidance. More specifically, highly anxious/ambivalent individuals were more likely to perceive relatively low efficacy of communication, and such perception, in turn, influenced their avoidance. Findings of the study provide an explanation for the association between attachment and avoidance.

War Exposure, Attachment Style, and Moral Reasoning

This study extends the investigation of the effects of war exposure beyond those previously documented (e.g., increased stress and aggression and various types of psychopathology) to include moral reasoning. Three groups from two cultures with different levels of exposure to the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were compared using Rest's Defining Issues Test. Possible effects of attachment style alone and in interaction with war exposure were also investigated. The results showed that exposure to war has (a) a very strong negative effect on moral reasoning with (b) no moderation by attachment style. However, the evidence suggests that war exposure may change the individual's attachment style from secure to insecure by inducing a more negative model of the other.

The Effects of Attachment Styles on Conflict Resolution Strategy in Social Relationship

The Effects of Attachment Styles on Conflict Resolution Strategy in Social Relationship

How Do Relationships Support Parenting? Effects of Attachment Style and Social Support on Parenting Behavior in an At‐Risk Population

The importance of supportive relationships for new parents has been the focus of both research and parenting interventions. Attachment style, typically viewed as a relatively stable trait reflecting one's comfort in social relationships, as well as social support, or one's perception of the social context, have both been found to be important for fostering engaged, involved parenting. Less is known, however, about how these variables work together to influence parenting behavior, especially in families at higher risk for negative child outcomes. Data were collected from 152 urban, predominantly African American, low-income parents when their children were 14 and 36 months of age. Results suggest that parents with more social support show greater increases in the frequency of positive parent-child activities over time, but that this effect is mediated by mothers' attachment style, specifically, their level of anxious/ambivalent attachment. Mothers with more social support tended to be less anxious/ambivalent about close relationships, and this in turn led to increases over time in the frequency of parent-child interactions. Mothers' tendency to avoid close relationships, however, while correlated with social support, was unrelated to changes in parenting behavior. Implications of these findings for program development, parenting, and the malleability of attachment style based on social context are discussed.

Effects of attachment style and relationship context on selection among relational strategies

Numerous studies have examined attachment-style differences in social perception, emotion-regulation, and couple communication, but relatively little is known about how dispositional attachment style combines or interacts with relationship situations or contexts to influence the decisions people make about how to act in their relationships. In the present study, participants were presented twice with relationship scenarios and asked to indicate how they would respond to each one. They completed the task initially without a particular context in mind and then again with either a positive or a negative relationship context in mind. Results indicated that a deteriorating relationship context caused participants to choose less secure and more insecure behaviors, especially avoidant ones, but dispositional attachment style was still important as well. Both sets of factors produced main effects rather than interactions.

Evaluating the Effects of Attachment Styles on Relationship Maintenance Behaviors in Father-Daughter Relationships

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of attachment styles on relationship maintenance behaviors in father-daughter relationships. Two hundred and seven father-daughter dyads participated in the study. Results indicate that both daughters’ and fathers’ attachment styles do not affect their relationship maintenance behaviors. Results also demonstrate that fathers are more likely than daughters to use all the relationship maintenance behaviors except for social networks. Moreover, fathers are more likely to use shared tasks and advice relationship maintenance behaviors than are their daughters.

214-THE IMPACT OF ICD DISCHARGES, ATTACHMENT STYLES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

Insecure attachment styles and immature or neurotic defense mechanisms are related to psychological distress. However, their mutual interaction in influencing psychological distress deserves further investigation.One-thousand-one-hundred-twenty-nine University students were evaluated using the Global Severity Index of Symptoms Check List 90-Revised for psychological distress, Relationship Questionnaire for attachment styles and Defense Style Questionnaire for defense mechanisms. Following exploratory analyses, a Path Analysis was performed with psychological distress as outcome.Fearful and preoccupied attachment styles had a substantial impact on psychological distress. About 30% of their effect was mediated by Immature and Neurotic defenses, with the former having the major effect. Dismissing attachment showed no substantial effect on psychological distress. Secure Attachment and Mature Defenses had a small protective effect on psychological distress, but their inclusion in the path model did not improve overall goodness-of-fit. Attachment style and defense mechanisms accounted for nearly 25% of the variance in psychological distress.The results showed that attachment styles and defense mechanisms have a substantial impact on psychological distress. The effect of attachment style is mediated by defense mechanisms. Individual differences in attachment style and defense mechanisms represent risk factors for psychological distress in young adults.

Relation of attachment style to family history of alcoholism and alcohol use disorders in early adulthood

The present study examined the association between paternal alcoholism and attachment style in early adulthood and sought to determine whether attachment style might, at least partially, mediate intergenerational risk for alcoholism. The current report focuses on the cross-sectional relation between family history (FH) of alcoholism, attachment styles, and alcohol use disorders (AUD) when cohort members were, on average, 29 years old ( N=369; 46% male; 51% FH+). Results indicated that FH+ participants were more likely to have insecure attachment, characterized by fearful-avoidant and dismissed-avoidant styles. Additionally, fearful-avoidant and dismissed-avoidant attachment styles were related to the presence of an AUD even after controlling for sex and FH ( P<0.05). There was little evidence, however, that attachment style mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and AUD in offspring; the FH-AUD association was only negligibly reduced when the effect of attachment style was controlled. Our findings suggest that insecure attachment style is a risk factor for AUD, independent of familial risk for alcoholism.

Effects of attachment styles on the experience of equity in heterosexual couples relationships.

Employing one correlational and two experimental studies, this paper examines the influence of attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) on a person's experience of equity in intimate relationships. While one experimental study employed a priming technique to stimulate the different attachment styles, the other involved vignettes describing fictitious characters with typical attachment styles. As the specific hypotheses about the single equity components have been developed on the basis of the attachment theory, the equity ratio itself and the four equity components (own outcome, own input, partner's outcome, partner's input) are analyzed as dependent variables. While partners with a secure attachment style tend to describe their relationship as equitable (i.e., they give and take extensively), partners who feel anxious about their relationship generally see themselves as being in an inequitable, disadvantaged position (i.e., they receive little from their partner). The hypothesis that avoidant partners would feel advantaged as they were less committed was only supported by the correlational study. Against expectations, the results of both experiments indicate that avoidant partners generally see themselves (or see avoidant vignettes) as being treated equitably, but that there is less emotional exchange than is the case with secure partners. Avoidant partners give and take less than secure ones.

Attachment styles impact on pet visitation effectiveness

This paper describes a field study on the effects of attachment styles on the subjective well-being of institutionalized older persons after participating in a pet visitation program. We compared how attachment style (i.e., secure, anxious ambivalent, dismissive avoidant, and fearful avoidant) moderated the impact of a dog visitation program in 52 elderly residents of an assisted-living facility. Controlling for pre-visitation mood, the results revealed that the secure style related to increases in positive mood after interacting with the dogs. The anxious ambivalent style related to increases in positive mood and decreases in ratings of depression. Most importantly, the fearful avoidant style related to increases in depression after interacting with the dogs. The results highlight the notion that not all participants benefit from taking part in pet visitation programs. Theoretically, this study presents preliminary evidence for the relevance of attachment styles in understanding human–pet interactions.

Infertility and Adjustment in Women: The Effects of Attachment Style and Social Support

The moderating effects of two psychological resources—attachment style and perceived social support—on adjustment were studied in 109 infertile women, examining the effects of duration of infertility and of primary (the woman has no child of her own) versus secondary (the woman already has a child of her own) infertility. Subjects were administered questionnaires measuring marital adjustment, psychological distress, and well-being. A model viewing attachment style and social support as moderators between stress psychological well-being was explored. The results showed that among the objective characteristics, only duration of infertility had any impact on the psychological measures. Furthermore, the psychological resources were highly associated with the adjustment scores in general. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that attachment style and social support both were related to marital quality and to psychological well-being and that these two resources function as stress moderators. It was concluded that attachment style and social support are important resources for individuals in times of stress, as exemplified in the infertility situation.

The contribution of adult attachment style to the adjustment to infertility.

This study examines the contribution of adult attachment style to the adjustment to infertility. Both husbands and wives of 80 infertile couples undergoing medical treatment completed the Attachment Style Scale, the Mental Health Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. One year later, data were collected on whether women became pregnant. Diagnosis of male infertility was significantly more distressing than diagnosis of female infertility. Significant differences were found among attachment groups: secure persons, either men or women, reported more well-being, less distress and more dyadic adjustment than avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons. Partners of secure persons also reported significantly higher levels of well-being and dyadic adjustment and significantly lower levels of distress than partners of anxious-ambivalent persons. However, these effects of attachment style were significant mainly when male infertility was diagnosed. Husbands' secure attachment made a significant positive contribution to pregnancy likelihood and this effect was mediated by adjustment measures. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory.

Adult attachment styles: their relations to family context and personality.

This study used a sample of 304 adults to examine mean differences in family climate and personality variables on the basis of individuals' attachment styles. Also examined was whether mean differences varied by age group. Findings showed significant main effects of attachment style, but no Attachment Style x Age Group interactions. Compared with adults with an insecure attachment style, persons with a secure attachment style described their family of origin and their current family more positively and scored higher on personality variables indicative of self-confidence, psychological well-being, and functioning in the social world. When the family climate and personality variables were included in a discriminant function analysis, 2 significant functions were obtained. The 1st function discriminated adults with a positive self-model from those with a negative self-model. The 2nd function contrasted participants with a positive other-model from those with a negative other-model. Thus, this study provided evidence in support of the self- and other-models as the fundamental dimensions of adults' attachment system.

Personality, birth order and attachment styles as related to various types of jealousy

The relationships between jealousy, personality, attachment styles and birth order were examined in a sample of 100 Dutch men and 100 Dutch women. Three types of jealousy were examined: reactive jealousy (a negative response to the emotional or sexual involvement of the partner with someone else), preventive jealousy (efforts to prevent intimate contact of the partner with a third person), and anxious jealousy (obsessive anxiety, upset, and worrying about the possibility of infidelity of the partner). The three types of jealousy were not at all related to egoism and dominance, but significantly correlated with neuroticism, social anxiety, rigidity and hostility. Only among women was a low self-esteem correlated with jealousy. On all three jealousy measures, those with an anxious-ambivalent attachment style were more jealous than those with an avoidant style, with those with a secure attachment style being the least jealous. Attachment style was strongly related to most personality dimensions, but the effects of attachment style upon jealousy stayed virtually the same when controlling for personality factors. The most important finding in the present study was that laterborns were more jealous according to all three measures than firstborns, a finding that was not due to personality differences between first- and laterborns, nor to differences in attachment style, gender or occupational level of the father. Because some evidence was found that only borns were slightly less jealous than firstborns, it is suggested that the experience of exclusive love and attention in one's childhood, leads to a lower level of jealousy among firstborns.