Individual Differences In Attachment Style Research Articles

Attachment anxiety and depressive symptoms in undergraduate medical students : The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies.

IntroductionSeveral studies report that medical students are at high risk of depression. Despite the variability in students’ vulnerability to depression, the role of individual differences in depression risk among medical students has hardly been investigated. Studies outside of medical student populations have shown that individual differences in attachment style and emotion regulation participate in vulnerability to depression.ObjectivesThis study investigates to what extent medical students’ depressive symptoms are related to differences in students’ insecure attachment styles and their perception of reduced access to emotion regulation strategies.MethodsIn a cross-sectional quantitative study, undergraduate medical students at the beginning of their second academic year completed online questionnaires measuring their attachment style, difficulties in emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms.ResultsOut of the 390 medical students invited, 267 participated in the survey. Higher secure attachment was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Medical students’ insecure attachment style and emotion dysregulation were significantly related to depressive symptoms. Difficulties in employing strategies to disengage from one’s own negative affect partly mediated the effects of two dimensions of insecure anxious attachment—need for approval and preoccupation with relationships—on depressive symptoms.DiscussionAnxious attachment style and limited access to emotion regulation strategies participate in medical students’ depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the need for acknowledging medical students’ attachment style and students’ perceived access to emotion regulation strategies for the early identification of and intervention programs for the risk of depression.Supplementary InformationThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-022-00713-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Attachment style and social media fatigue: The role of usage-related stressors, self-esteem, and self-concept clarity

Social media fatigue is a subjective sense of physical and mental exhaustion, lassitude, and irritation, caused by social media use. The current research explored the association between individual differences in attachment styles and the experience of fatigue resulting from extensive social media use. Two studies examined the association between adult attachment style and Facebook fatigue, and the mediating role of stressors related to social media use, self-esteem, and self-concept clarity. The results of the first study (N = 264) revealed an association between attachment anxiety and Facebook fatigue that was mediated by Facebook social comparison and Facebook anxiety. In the second study (N = 294), attachment anxiety was also associated with Facebook fatigue and was mediated by fear of missing out and Facebook anxiety, and these mediation effects were moderated by self-concept clarity. The findings indicate that the experience of social-media fatigue varies in accordance with specific user characteristics. Additionally, they Illustrate the impact of social media use on mental health, and emphasize the need to create a user experience that takes into account the stressors associated with social media use.

Attachment anxiety predicts worse mental health outcomes during COVID-19: Evidence from two studies

COVID-19 has resulted in a mental health crisis across the globe. Understanding factors that may have increased individuals' risk of poor mental health outcomes is imperative. Individual differences in attachment styles have been shown to predict poorer mental health outcomes and insecure individuals struggle to cope with stressful situations. Therefore, we extended past research by examining whether higher attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) predicted worse mental health over time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 examined mood and mood fluctuations daily over a week in the beginning of lockdown and depression and anxiety weekly over a five-week period (n = 200). Study 2 examined depression and anxiety before and during the pandemic (n = 100 couples). As predicted, individuals higher (vs. lower) in attachment anxiety, but not avoidance, reported greater depression and anxiety during the pandemic in both studies. Individuals lower in attachment anxiety experienced an improvement in mental health over time in Study 1 suggesting that more secure individuals may recover more quickly from the initial change in circumstances. Attachment styles did not significantly predict mood or mood fluctuations. Attachment anxiety is likely to be a risk factor for poor mental health outcomes during COVID-19.

Social touch deprivation during COVID-19: effects on psychological wellbeing and craving interpersonal touch.

Social touch has positive effects on social affiliation and stress alleviation. However, its ubiquitous presence in human life does not allow the study of social touch deprivation ‘in the wild’. Nevertheless, COVID-19-related restrictions such as social distancing allowed the systematic study of the degree to which social distancing affects tactile experiences and mental health. In this study, 1746 participants completed an online survey to examine intimate, friendly and professional touch experiences during COVID-19-related restrictions, their impact on mental health and the extent to which touch deprivation results in craving touch. We found that intimate touch deprivation during COVID-19-related restrictions is associated with higher anxiety and greater loneliness even though this type of touch is still the most experienced during the pandemic. Moreover, intimate touch is reported as the type of touch most craved during this period, thus being more prominent as the days practising social distancing increase. However, our results also show that the degree to which individuals crave touch during this period depends on individual differences in attachment style: the more anxiously attached, the more touch is craved; with the reverse pattern for avoidantly attached. These findings point to the important role of interpersonal and particularly intimate touch in times of distress and uncertainty.

One size does not fit all: individual differences in attachment style and fear of COVID‐19 in hospitalized elderly patients

One size does not fit all: individual differences in attachment style and fear of <scp>COVID‐19</scp> in hospitalized elderly patients

Anxious attachment is associated with heightened responsivity of a parietofrontal cortical network that monitors peri-personal space

BackgroundAttachment, or affiliative bonding among conspecifics, is thought to involve neural mechanisms underlying behavioral responses to threat and reward-related social signals. However, attachment-oriented responses may also rely on basic sensorimotor processes. One sensorimotor system that may play a role in attachment is the parietofrontal cortical network that responds to stimuli that are near or approaching the body, the peripersonal space (PPS) monitoring system. We hypothesized that this network may vary in responsivity to such potentially harmful stimuli, particularly those with social salience, based on individual differences in attachment styles. MethodsYoung adults viewed images of human faces or cars that appeared to move towards or away from them, while functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected. Correlations between each of four adult attachment styles, measured using the Relationship Questionnaire, and responses of the PPS network to approaching (versus withdrawing) stimuli were measured. ResultsA region-of-interest (ROI) analysis, focused on six cortical regions of the PPS network that showed significant responses to approaching versus withdrawing face stimuli in an independent sample (n = 80), revealed that anxious attachment style (but not the other 3 attachment styles) was significantly positively correlated with responses to faces (but not to cars) in all six ROIs (r = 0.33–0.49, p = 0.01–0.0001, n = 50). ConclusionsThese findings suggest that anxious attachment is associated with over-responsivity of a sensorimotor network involved in attending to social stimuli near the body.

Attachment styles, negotiation of goal conflict, and perceived partner support during COVID-19

Due to the pandemic, people have been stuck indoors with their partners for months. Instead of being able to rely on multiple sources of support, many couples have to rely on each other more. We investigated whether goal conflict, successful negotiation of the conflict, and individual differences in attachment styles were associated with perceived partner support to understand factors that may enable or hinder goal pursuit during the pandemic. Participants (n = 200) completed a daily diary for a week and weekly longitudinal reports for five weeks. Results showed that higher goal conflict predicted perception of less relational catalyst (RC) support and more anti-RC support from partner, whereas more successful negotiation of goal conflict predicted higher RC support and lower anti-RC support. Attachment avoidance was directly associated with less support whereas attachment anxiety moderated the relationship between goal conflict and support. Implications for partner support during the pandemic are discussed.

The impact of attachment styles and defense mechanisms on psychological distress in a non-clinical young adult sample: A path analysis

IntroductionInsecure attachment styles and immature or neurotic defense mechanisms are related to psychological distress. However, their mutual interaction in influencing psychological distress deserves further investigation. MethodsOne-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. ResultsFearful 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. ConclusionsThe 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.

High Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System Sensitivity, Childhood Emotional Neglect and Their Interaction as Possible Related Factors for Adult Attachment Style in Depression.

ObjectiveIndividual differences in attachment insecurity are important in a broad range of mental health problems. However, few empirical studies have examined the clinical factors that contribute to individual differences in attachment style. This study examines the nature of interrelationships among adult attachment styles, sensitivities of behavioral activation system/behavioral inhibition system (BIS/BAS), and childhood trauma in patients with depressive disorders. MethodsPatients with depressive disorders (n=294) completed self-report questionnaires evaluating adult attachment style, childhood trauma, and BIS/BAS sensitivity. We performed multiple regression analyses to examine the associations between attachment style and other clinical factors, including childhood trauma and BIS/BAS sensitivity. We also conducted hierarchical regression analyses and simple slope analyses to examine the interaction between BIS/BAS sensitivity and childhood trauma. ResultsThe BAS sensitivity was negatively associated with attachment avoidance. The higher was the BIS/BAS sensitivity, the higher was the level of attachment anxiety. Among childhood trauma, emotional neglect contributed to both dimensions of insecure attachment. The interaction between BAS sensitivity and emotional neglect is significantly associated with attachment anxiety. ConclusionThis study used data regarding the interrelationship of childhood trauma and basic motivational systems to contribute to the understanding of adult insecure attachment behaviors, a risk factor for depression.

Parental attachment anxiety: Associations with allostatic load in mothers of 1-year-olds

Growing evidence indicates that individual differences in attachment style are related to health outcomes. The present study extends this literature by examining whether attachment anxiety in both mothers and fathers predicts maternal health the year following the birth of a child in a sample of 698 low-income, racially diverse couples. We hypothesized that maternal perceptions of partner responsiveness would mediate these associations. Maternal allostatic load, a measure of cumulative wear-and-tear on the body due to stress, was used as an indicator of maternal health. Maternal biomarkers (blood pressure, adiposity, blood metabolites, inflammation, and diurnal cortisol) were scored using clinical or top-quartile cutoffs to compute an allostatic load index. Attachment anxiety and perceived partner responsiveness were assessed in interviews. Path models were used to test indirect associations between mother and father attachment anxiety and maternal allostatic load through perceived partner responsiveness. We found that higher mother and father attachment anxiety were each independently and indirectly associated with higher maternal allostatic load through lower maternal perceptions of partner responsiveness. These findings highlight the need to consider both relationship and partner factors in understanding maternal health.

A computational perspective on social attachment

Humans depend on social relationships for survival and wellbeing throughout life. Yet, individuals differ markedly in their ability to form and maintain healthy social relationships. Here we use a simple mathematical model to formalize the contention that a person’s attachment style is determined by what they learn from relationships early in life. For the sake of argument, we therefore discount individual differences in the innate personality or attachment style of a child, assuming instead that all children are simply born with an equivalent, generic, hardwired desire and instinct for social proximity, and a capacity to learn. In line with the evidence, this innate endowment incorporates both simple bonding instincts and a capacity for cognitively sophisticated beliefs and generalizations. Under this assumption, we then explore how distinct attachment styles might emerge through interaction with the child’s early caregivers. Our central question is, how an apparently adaptive capacity to learn can yield enduring maladaptive attachment styles that generalize to new relationships. We believe extensions of our model will ultimately help clarify the complex interacting mechanisms – both acquired and innate – that underpin individual differences in attachment styles. While our model is relatively abstract, we also attempt some connection to known biological mechanisms of attachment.

The Ex-Factor: Attachment Anxiety and Social Comparisons Across Romantic Relationships

AbstractIndividuals high in attachment anxiety often experience persistent negative self-perceptions and heightened sensitivity toward perceived relationship threats. These characteristics may extend into past romantic relationships. This study examined whether individual differences in attachment style predict self-evaluations and relationship social comparison frequency. Two hundred and fifty-nine individuals rated themselves, their partner, and their current partner's ex-partner (CPE) or their ex-partner's current partner (ECP) on several dimensions. Individuals high in attachment anxiety experienced more relationship uncertainty but were not less satisfied than individuals low in attachment anxiety. They also made more comparisons in general and to relationships involving an ex-partner, and viewed themselves less positively than they viewed their CPE/ECP. Findings are discussed with respect to the influence that past relationships might hold over anxiously attached individuals’ current relationships.

Sensitivity to CT-optimal, Affective Touch Depends on Adult Attachment Style

Affective touch supports affiliative bonds and social cognition. In particular, gentle, stroking touch, which has recently been associated with the C Tactile (CT) system, is typically perceived as pleasant and prosocial. However, it remains unknown whether pre-existing models of social relating influence the perception of CT-optimal touch. In this study (N = 44 adults), we examined how individual differences in attachment styles relate to the perception of CT-optimal touch, as well as to a different modality of interoception, namely heartbeat perception. Using the gold-standard assessment of attachment (Adult Attachment Interview), we found that insecure attachment was associated with reduced pleasantness discrimination between CT-optimal vs. non-CT optimal touch. Acknowledging the different traditions in measuring attachment, we also used a well-validated self-report questionnaire that pertains to explicit representations of current close relationships. Using this measure, we found that higher scores in attachment anxiety (but not attachment avoidance) were associated with reduced pleasantness discrimination between CT-optimal vs. non-CT optimal touch. Attachment patterns (in both measures) were not related to cardiac perception accuracy. These results corroborate and extend previous literature on CT-optimal touch and its relation with affiliative bonds and social cognition. Given that attachment was not related to perceived cardiac accuracy, these findings point to the specificity of the relationship between CT-optimal touch and attachment.

Mate Value Discrepancy and Attachment Anxiety Predict the Perpetration of Digital Dating Abuse

Research suggests that individual differences in attachment style predict the perpetration of digital dating abuse. In addition to attachment style, no research, to our knowledge, has explored the role of mate value in the perpetration of digital dating abuse. In this paper, we argue that digital dating abuse is a contemporary cost-inflicting mate retention behaviour, where larger mate value discrepancies between partners are associated with higher levels of digital dating abuse (n = 167). As expected, high mate value discrepancy and attachment anxiety were associated with high levels of digital dating abuse. We provide novel support for the relationship between mate value discrepancy and digital dating abuse. Our findings provide support for additional, unexplored factors which lead to the perpetration of digital dating abuse.

Attachment buffers the physiological impact of social exclusion.

Attachment systems facilitate coping with stress, with previous studies demonstrating attachment figures diminishing subjective, behavioral and neural responses to social pain. Yet little is known about the physiological mechanisms governing this benefit in the context of social exclusion. This study investigated the impact of attachment (vs non-attachment) priming on affective and cardiovascular responses to social exclusion induced by the computerized “Cyberball” ball-tossing game, and the moderating influence of individual differences in attachment style, rejection sensitivity and self-construal. No significant change in high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV)–an index of parasympathetic activity and cardiovagal balance–was observed across the time course in the attachment priming condition, whereas the non-attachment condition showed significant fluctuation in HF-HRV–increasing during Cyberball and decreasing relative to baseline during recovery. Moreover, the benefit afforded by attachment priming on was enhanced amongst participants with lower rejection sensitivity and higher collectivistic self-construal, and those with higher anxious attachment style in the non-attachment prime group showed a trend towards increased HF-HRV during the Cyberball. Results are consistent with Social Baseline Theory, which argues that social proximity–particularly from attachment figures–protects against the metabolic costs associated with strong reactions to stress, including the preservation of cardiovagal homeostasis in this instance. Social attachments may provide an important mechanism to increase adaptive responding to the distressing experience of social exclusion.

Attachment Strength and Relationship Expectancies in the Prediction of Adolescent Stress and Depression

Interpersonal relationships are the recent focus of research identifying protective factors in adolescent psychological health. Using an attachment theory perspective, this study examines the relationship of normative attachment strength and individual differences in attachment expectancies on self-reports of depression and stress in 511 Australian high school students. Attachment reorganisation was demonstrated, but only father attachment uniquely predicted self-reported stress. Age moderated the relationships between peers and depression and stress among romantically involved adolescents. Individual differences in attachment styles, particularly anxious attachment, were most predictive of adolescent psychological health. These findings highlight the complexity of adolescent attachment relationships and suggest that interventions target both normative and individual factors in adolescent development to enhance adolescent psychological health.

Social attachments and traumatic stress

The extent to which we engage with our social world has been central to our survival as a species and, accordingly, is relevant to how we cope with trauma and adversity. This review summarises current knowledge about the importance of social connections from an evolutionary perspective, as well as integrating this with a discussion of prevailing attachment theories. Experimental research supporting the potential benefit of attachments for managing adversity are presented, along with a review of how these benefits are moderated by individual differences in attachment style. The potential impact of trauma on attachment systems, and the manner in which this can compound trauma stress is discussed. Finally, a broader overview of social network analysis is introduced and it is proposed that a more sociocentric framework of trauma response would promote a fuller understanding of how social processes moderate trauma response.

Prepared to care: adult attachment and filial obligation

Objectives: Past work found that close adult attachment dimension scores predict caregiver preparedness. Theory and past research suggests filial obligation (FO) may mediate the relationship between attachment and caregiver preparedness. The goal of this study was to test that hypothesis.Method: The sample, collected using Mechanical Turk, included 165 women between the ages of 45 and 65 years who were not providing care to an aging parent. Participants were reimbursed $0.75 for completing an online survey assessing response validity, dimensions of adult attachment, depressive symptomatology, FO, and caregiver preparedness, among other variables. The mean participant age was 52.2 years (SD = 5.5).Results: The sample was predominantly White/Caucasian (82.6%), and Black/African American (7.3%). With respect to education, 14.5% completed high school or general education development (GED), 32.7% completed some college, 36.4% completed a Bachelor's degree, and 15.7% completed graduate degrees. The three attachment dimensions (close, dependent, and anxious) and FO were all significantly inner-correlated. Stepwise multiple regression analyses found that FO fully mediates the relationship between close attachment and caregiver preparedness, even after controlling for age, education, income, depression, and birth order.Conclusion: The primary finding is that FO mediates the relationship between close attachment style and caregiver preparedness among prospective caregivers. This suggests that individual differences in attachment style among prospective caregivers indirectly predict preparedness for future caregiving through FO, suggesting a mechanism relating attachment style and preparation for future care.

Digit Ratio (2D:4D) and Attachment Styles in Middle Childhood: Indirect Evidence for an Organizational Effect of Sex Hormones

Sex differences in attachment are absent during infancy and early childhood, emerge in middle childhood with self-reports and doll-play tasks, and persist into adulthood, when they are most reliably detected in romantic attachment styles. In our previous work, we hypothesized that sex differences in attachment develop under the influence of adrenal androgens during the transition form early to middle childhood, following activation of hormone-sensitive neural pathways organized by prenatal and early postnatal exposure to sex hormones. In this study we tested the association between the right-hand 2D:4D digit ratio (a marker of early exposure to androgens and estrogen) and sexually differentiated dimensions of attachment in middle childhood assessed with the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ). In a sample of 285 Italian children aged 8–10 years, females scored lower in avoidance and higher in preoccupation, while no significant sex differences were observed in felt security. Consistent with our predictions, higher (feminized) digit ratios were significantly associated with lower avoidance and higher preoccupation scores in both males and females. In contrast, there was no significant association between digit ratio and felt security in either sex. These results corroborate the hypothesis that sex differences in attachment reflect the activation of sexually differentiated pathways organized in early development, and for the first time implicate sex hormones in the development of individual differences in attachment styles.

Attachment style and respiratory sinus arrhythmia predict post‐treatment quality of life in breast cancer survivors

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor among women in the industrialized world. The vast majority of these tumors can now be successfully treated. A subset of breast cancer survivors report quality of life (QOL) difficulties well after treatment is completed. The current study examined how individual differences in attachment style and self-regulatory capacity (as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)) were associated QOL among post-treatment breast cancer survivors. Women who had completed treatment for stage 0-IIIA breast cancer within the past 2 years participated in the study (N=96). RSA was assessed using electrocardiography data that was continuously measured non-invasively for 10 min. Attachment orientation was measured using a modified version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale and overall QOL by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast scale. Breast cancer survivors with more attachment anxiety reported poorer QOL than those with less attachment anxiety. Women who were more avoidantly attached also reported poorer QOL compared with those who were less avoidantly attached. Furthermore, attachment avoidance interacted with RSA to predict QOL such that those with higher attachment avoidance were only vulnerable to poorer QOL if they also had lower self-regulatory capacity, as indexed by lower RSA. A better understanding of how attachment style and RSA contribute to breast cancer survivors QOL will help identify people at risk for QOL problems after treatment completion.