Dealing with Anxiety: Relationships among Interpersonal Attachment Style, Psychological Wellbeing and Trait Anxiety (original) (raw)
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Personality and Individual Differences, 2014
Health anxiety involves persistent worry about one's health and beliefs one has an illness or may contract a disease. The interpersonal model of health anxiety is a conceptual framework linking insecure attachment to health anxiety. The present study, clarified the contribution of insecure attachment to health anxiety by studying two key dimensions of insecure attachment: anxious and avoidant attachment. The unique role of insecure attachment in health anxiety was tested by controlling for emotional instability. The potential interaction between attachment insecurity and emotional instability in predicting health anxiety was also tested using hierarchical regression analyses with data from 147 undergraduates. Anxious attachment uniquely predicted health anxiety even when avoidant attachment and emotional instability were taken into account. An interaction was also observed where high anxious attachment and high emotional instability combined to predict higher health anxiety. This interaction was specific to health anxiety (versus depressive symptoms). An unexpected interaction was found where high avoidant attachment and low emotional instability combined to predict lower health anxiety. The present study extends research on health anxiety by clarifying the nature of insecure attachment in and the role of emotional instability in the interpersonal model of health anxiety.
Relations between anxiety sensitivity and attachment style dimensions
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2005
- by investigating relations between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and attachment dimensions in a sample of young adults. Two hundred and twenty-six undergraduate students completed self-report measures including the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the measure of adult romantic attachment used by C. F. . In order to investigate the association between AS and a different domain of attachment, a measure of adult attachment referring to "close relationships" was included. As defined by both measures, insecurely attached individuals, specifically those classified as preoccupied and fearful (i.e., those with negative Models of Self), reported significantly higher levels of AS than those with secure and dismissing attachment styles (i.e., those with positive Models of Self). Results indicated that across both measures the Model of Self attachment dimension accounted for unique variance in AS levels beyond that contributed by trait anxiety. The Model of Others attachment dimension had a more limited association with AS.
Adult attachment style and anxiety - The mediating role of emotion regulation
Journal of affective disorders, 2017
Although there is substantial evidence for the role of emotion regulation in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders, knowledge about what contributes to emotion dysregulation is sparse. Attachment style is related to emotion regulation and anxiety symptoms, but these variables have rarely been examined together. Examining emotion dysregulation within the context of anxiety disorders through an attachment theory framework will lead to a better understanding of the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. In the present study we combined theoretically and empirically derived knowledge to examine the mediating role of emotion regulation between attachment dimensions (avoidance and anxiety) and anxiety symptoms. A total of 147 individuals were assessed with Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and statistical mediation analyses were conducted. Our results indicate that the s...
E-Journal of Applied Psychology, 2012
Attachment theory is an encompassing theory for understanding human reactions to life stressors, such as loss and separation, and interpersonal problems are common reasons for seeking psychotherapy. Psychotherapy may be an opportunity to revise insecure attachment and handle interpersonal problems. This study examined attachment styles and interpersonal problems in a clinical sample of psychotherapy patients (n = 168) at the start of psychotherapy. The main aim was to study how self-reported attachment styles, measured by the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), correlated with interpersonal problems measured using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP). Avoidant-related and anxious-related attachment scales correlated positively to the total IIP scores. Inconsistent with findings in nonclinical samples, specific interpersonal problems in the dominant and affiliative parts of the IIP correlated positively to both the anxious-related and the avoidantrelated attachment scales. The findings imply that a challenge for the therapist at the start of psychotherapy is to balance providing security with encouraging exploration of feelings, thoughts, and behaviour in the patient's interpersonal problems in current relationships. Exploring individual profiles of attachment styles helps to clarify motives in expressed interpersonal problems.
2019
Although previous research has identified a relationship between insecure attachment styles and symptoms of depression and anxiety, evidence regarding the mechanisms of action driving this relationship has been lacking. Consequently, the current study examined the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between insecure attachment styles (i.e. anxiousavoidant, anxious-ambivalent, helpless-disorganized and frightened-disorganized) and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The current study included a sample of 182 participants (i.e., 87 men and 95 women) who completed six questionnaires that assessed each participants' relationship with their caregivers during their childhood, present symptoms of depression and anxiety, and their resilience. Correlational analyses indicated significant relationships among the variables being studied. The formation of an insecure attachment during childhood predicted significantly symptoms of depression and anxiety in adulthood in both men and women. More specifically, the relationship between anxious-avoidant and anxious-ambivalent with symptoms of depression was partially mediated by resilience for men. There were no significant mediation for symptoms of anxiety for me. Within the women population, resilience served as a partial mediator in the relationship between anxious-ambivalent attachment and depression as well as in the relationship between frightened-disorganized attachment and anxiety. Such findings suggested that resilience could act as a protective factor against symptoms of depression and anxiety. These results demonstrated the importance for promoting resilience, especially for individuals who formed insecure attachments during childhood. The importance of studying the relationships among these variables is discussed further.
Perceived Social Support Moderates the Link between Attachment Anxiety and Health Outcomes
PLoS ONE, 2014
Two literatures have explored some of the effects intimate relationships can have on physical and mental health outcomes. Research investigating health through the lens of attachment theory has demonstrated that more anxiously attached individuals in particular consistently report poorer health. Separate research on perceived social support (e.g., partner or spousal support) suggests that higher support has salutary influences on various health outcomes. Little to no research, however, has explored the interaction of attachment anxiety and perceived social support on health outcomes. The present study examined the attachment-health link and the moderating role of perceived social support in a community sample of married couples. Results revealed that more anxious persons reported poorer overall physical and mental health, more bodily pain, more medical symptoms, and impaired daily functioning, even after controlling for age, relationship length, neuroticism, and marital quality. Additionally, perceived social support interacted with attachment anxiety to influence health; more anxious individuals' health was poorer even when perceived social support was high, whereas less anxious individuals' health benefited from high support. Possible mechanisms underlying these findings and the importance of considering attachment anxiety in future studies of poor health in adulthood are discussed.
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 2005
Objectives. The stability of attachment-related anxiety and avoidance and their relationship with influential personality models are issues worth further investigation. Studying discriminant validity with respect to aspects of personality deemed as prevalently heritable, such as temperament, is particularly important. Our aims were to examine the stability of attachment dimensions and to study their relationship with psychological distress, the Big Five factors, and temperament and character dimensions. Methods. The Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Zung depression scale (ZDS), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125), and the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) were administered to 222 undergraduate and graduate students. After 1 month, 115 participants completed again the ECR, the STAI, and the ZDS. Results. Attachment-related anxiety was modestly correlated with depression and anxiety, while attachment-related avoidance was modestly correlated with depression. anxiety were not related to changes in depression or anxiety, and changes in attachment-related avoidance were modestly correlated with changes in depression. In separate multiple regression models also including gender and age, attachmentrelated anxiety was correlated with harm avoidance, reward dependence, low novelty seeking, low self-directedness and low cooperativeness; low energy/extraversion and low emotional stability; attachment-related avoidance was correlated with low reward dependence and tended to be correlated with low self-directedness. Conclusions. These findings corroborate the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity of the ECR, and support the notion that the attachment dimensions are only modestly related to psychological distress and are not redundant with constructs developed within influential personality models such as the five-factor model and the psychobiological model.
Social anxiety as a potential mediator of the association between attachment and depression
Journal of affective disorders, 2016
The study represents a conceptual replication of the study by Eng et al. (2001) in a sample of adult patients diagnosed with social anxiety disorder as primary diagnosis. Two different attachment questionnaires (Bielefeld Questionnaire of Client Expectations (BQCE) and Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-RD)) were applied to examine whether the effect of attachment on depression (measured by the BDI) is mediated by social anxiety (measured by the LSAS) in a cross-sectional study. The data confirms such a mediation. The effect of attachment measured with the BQCE on depression was completely mediated, whereas the effect of both scales of the ECR-RD (attachment related avoidance and anxiety) on depression was only partially mediated by social anxiety disorder. The study supports the association of attachment, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms and the need to consider different perspectives on attachment.
2016
This study attempted to provide preliminary empirical support for an emerging model of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) stemming from an emotion-focused therapy (EFT) perspective, which views GAD as reflecting negative self-organizations and emotion dysregulation as a function of attachment injuries (Watson & Greenberg, in press). It has done so by examining negative early attachment experiences and attachment styles, as representing attachment injuries; differentiation of self, negative problem orientation, and self-esteem, as representing negative self-organization; and emotion dysregulation, and by investigating the relationships among these variables and their contribution to generalized anxiety and worry. Following on suggestion of previous research (Ruscio, 2002; Ruscio & Borkovec, 2004; Ruscio et al., 2001) indicating that worry, while characteristic of GAD, exists independently of GAD and therefore would benefit from being studied in its own right, this study examined worr...
International Journal of Psychology
Attachment styles are considered important not only for adults' close relationships but also for individual's well-being, reflecting the subjective quality of life, covering positive mood, vitality, and interest in things. Emotion regulation is considered to be in direct relation with these variables and expected to play a mediating role in the association between attachment and well-being. The aim of this study was to obtain better insight into the associations between attachment styles and subjective well-being, by testing the possible mediating role of emotion regulation skill. The methodology employed in this study was descriptive methodology. Sample demographics were 130 students of University of Isfahan, Iran, who were selected based on multi-stage simple sampling method. Direct effects of attachment styles on emotion regulation skill were all significant (p<.05). Direct effects of secure and avoidance styles on SWB were both significant (p<.05). Indirect effects of attachment styles on SWB were all significant (p<.05). Indirect effects of avoidance style on SWB was-0.11, indirect effects of secure style on SWB was 0.4, and indirect effects of ambivalence style on SWB was-.21 (p<.05). Model fit indices were: