The Effects of Perceived Childhood Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance on Depression in Emerging Adulthood: Depressive Experience Style as a Mediator

We examine if psychological intimate partner violence (pIPV) is predicted by parental psychological control (PPC) via insecure attachment. Our results analyzing longitudinal data from the Child Development Project show that PPC perceived at age 16 predicts insecure attachment at age 18, which then predicts pIPV at age 24. Moreover, the paths with attachment anxiety are consistently significant while ones with attachment avoidance are not. Further, all the paths are significant regardless of the gender of the adolescents and parents, which indicates that PPC is detrimental regardless of the gender of the adolescents or parents. Lastly, PPC perceived at age 16 does not directly predict pIPV at age 24, which suggests that social learning theory of aggression ( Bandura, 1978 ) may not explain the association from PPC to pIPV. Our results suggest that research and practice would benefit by considering PPC as an antecedent of pIPV via insecure attachment from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

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The Relationship Between Texture Responses on the Rorschach and Adult Attachment

Rorschachiana Journal of the International Society for the Rorschach ◽

10.1027/1192-5604/a000002 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 4-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Kazunori Iwasa ◽

Toshiki Ogawa

Keyword(s):

Graduate Students ◽

Adult Attachment ◽

Japanese Population ◽

Attachment Anxiety ◽

Anxiety Scale ◽

Self Report ◽

Comprehensive System ◽

Attachment Avoidance ◽

Sensitive Measure ◽

The Relationship

We examined the relationship between texture responses (T) on the Rorschach and adult attachment in the Japanese population. 47 Japanese undergraduate and graduate students (mean age = 20.16, SD = 1.87) completed a self-report adult attachment scale as well as the Rorschach. An ANOVA revealed that T = 1 participants were attached more securely than were other groups. T > 1 participants were more preoccupied with attachment and scored higher on an attachment anxiety scale than the T = 1 group. Although these results were consistent with the interpretation of the texture response according to the Comprehensive System (CS), the results obtained for T = 0 participants were inconsistent with hypotheses derived from the CS. T = 0 participants were high on preoccupied and attachment anxiety scores, although they were theoretically expected to be high on dismissing or attachment avoidance. These results indicated that – at least in Japan – T should be regarded as a sensitive measure of attachment anxiety.

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Attachment Anxiety Mitigates the Well-Being Costs of Object Attachment

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000328 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 41-56

Author(s):

Lucas A. Keefer ◽

Zachary K. Rothschild

Keyword(s):

Past Research ◽

Well Being ◽

Attachment Anxiety ◽

Current Paper ◽

Personality Research ◽

Psychological Correlates ◽

State Study ◽

Object Attachment ◽

Diary Methods ◽

State Variation

Abstract. Clinical and personality research consistently demonstrates that people can form unhealthy and problematic attachments to material possessions. To better understand this tendency, the current paper extends past research demonstrating that anxieties about other people motivate these attachments. These findings suggest that although object attachment generally correlates with poorer well-being, it may attenuate well-being deficits associated with insecurity about close relationships. The current paper presents two studies using converging correlational ( N = 394) and diary methods ( N = 413) to test whether object attachments’ association with poorer well-being is moderated by relationship uncertainties. We find that both trait (Study 1) and state (Study 2) insecurities about others eliminated, and in some cases reversed, the negative psychological correlates of object attachment. These effects, however, were only observed when focusing on between-person variation in both studies; within-person analysis demonstrated that state variation in object attachment predicted better psychological well-being. These results highlight a need for more nuanced studies of object attachment and well-being.

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