Insecurity, stress, and symptoms of psychopathology: contrasting results from self-reports versus interviews of adult attachment

This report was designed to clarify links among self-reports of psychiatric symptomatology, stress, and adult attachment insecurity, as operationalized using measures drawn from both the developmental and social psychological literatures. Based on a sample of 160 college students, this study demonstrated that insecurity reflected in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was associated with self-reports of psychiatric symptomatology principally for individuals experiencing high levels of life stress (consistent with a diathesis-stress model) whereas self-reports of attachment-related avoidance and anxiety correlated robustly with psychopathology under conditions of both relatively high and low life stress (consistent with a risk model). Results provide further evidence that social psychological and developmental approaches to the assessment of adult attachment-related variation are associated with domains of adaptation central to Bowlby's account of human development in empirically distinct ways.

[1]  P. Shaver,et al.  Attachment styles, emotion regulation, and adjustment in adolescence. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  R. C. Fraley,et al.  Attachment and Loss , 2018 .

[3]  J. Belsky,et al.  Earned security, daily stress, and parenting: A comparison of five alternative models , 1998, Development and Psychopathology.

[4]  M. Bakermans-Kranenburg,et al.  Attachment representations in mothers, fathers, adolescents, and clinical groups: a meta-analytic search for normative data. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[5]  D. Griffin,et al.  Models of the self and other: Fundamental dimensions underlying measures of adult attachment. , 1994 .

[6]  K. Albus,et al.  Attachment and psychopathology in adulthood. , 2008 .

[7]  Kelly A. Brennan,et al.  Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. , 1998 .

[8]  M. Boivin,et al.  Individual differences in adult attachment: Disentangling two assessment traditions , 2007 .

[9]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[10]  David A. Fazzari,et al.  Attachment and Psychological Adaptation in High Exposure Survivors of the September 11th Attack on the World Trade Center , 2006, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[11]  A. Bifulco,et al.  Adult attachment style. I: Its relationship to clinical depression , 2002, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[12]  K. Bell,et al.  Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications , 2001 .

[13]  E. Carlson.  A prospective longitudinal study of attachment disorganization/disorientation. , 1998, Child development.

[14]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  Earned-secure attachment status in retrospect and prospect. , 2002, Child development.

[15]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  The Adult Attachment Interview and self-reports of attachment style: an empirical rapprochement. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  M. Horowitz,et al.  Life Event Questionnaires for Measuring Presumptive Stress , 1977, Psychosomatic medicine.

[17]  S. Chazan.  Attachment Theory and Close Relationships , 1999 .

[18]  I. Gotlib,et al.  Adult attachment security and symptoms of depression: the mediating roles of dysfunctional attitudes and low self-esteem. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  C. Ross,et al.  Attachment, personality, and psychopathology among adult inpatients: Self-reported romantic attachment style versus Adult Attachment Interview states of mind , 2007, Development and Psychopathology.

[20]  H. E. Cole,et al.  Attachment and emotion regulation during mother-teen problem solving: a control theory analysis. , 1993, Child development.

[21]  Kelly A. Brennan,et al.  An item response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  B. Compas,et al.  Stress and life events during childhood and adolescence , 1987 .

[23]  June Rathbone,et al.  The Adult Attachment Interview , 2001 .

[24]  R. Kobak,et al.  Attachment in late adolescence: working models, affect regulation, and representations of self and others. , 1988, Child development.

[25]  D. Julien,et al.  Predictive Validity of Adult Attachment Measures in Relation to Emotion Regulation Behaviors in Marital Interactions , 2002 .

[26]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  An experimental manipulation of retrospectively defined earned and continuous attachment security. , 2006, Child development.

[27]  L. Sroufe,et al.  Child and adolescent anxiety disorders and early attachment. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[28]  D. Rosenstein,et al.  Adolescent attachment and psychopathology. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[29]  J. Simpson.  Influence of Attachment Styles on Romantic Relationships , 1990 .

[30]  Jay Belsky,et al.  A taxometric study of the Adult Attachment Interview. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[31]  John Bowlby,et al.  Separation: Anxiety and Anger , 1973 .

[32]  R. Hobson,et al.  Personality disorder and the mental representation of early social experience , 1994, Development and Psychopathology.

[33]  C. Hazan,et al.  Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  The role of adult attachment security in non-romantic, non-attachment-related first interactions between same-sex strangers , 2006, Attachment & human development.

[35]  G. Creasey,et al.  Generalized and Specific Attachment Representations: Unique and Interactive Roles in Predicting Conflict Behaviors in Close Relationships , 2005, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[36]  P Fonagy,et al.  The relation of attachment status, psychiatric classification, and response to psychotherapy. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[37]  Glenn I. Roisman,et al.  The emotional integration of childhood experience: physiological, facial expressive, and self-reported emotional response during the adult attachment interview. , 2004, Developmental psychology.

[38]  Erik Hesse,et al.  The adult attachment interview: Historical and current perspectives. , 1999 .

[39]  R. Kobak,et al.  Attachment processes in eating disorder and depression. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[40]  W. Berman,et al.  Attachment in adults: Clinical and developmental perspectives. , 1994 .

[41]  Jeffry A. Simpson,et al.  Working Models of Attachment, Support Giving, and Support Seeking in a Stressful Situation , 2002 .

[42]  M. Rutter,et al.  The domain of developmental psychopathology. , 1984, Child development.

[43]  John Bowlby,et al.  Loss--Sadness and Depression , 1980 .

[44]  J. Abela,et al.  Adult Attachment Dimensions and Specificity of Emotional Distress Symptoms: Prospective Investigations of Cognitive Risk and Interpersonal Stress Generation as Mediating Mechanisms , 2005, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[45]  P. Shaver,et al.  Dialogue on adult attachment: Diversity and integration , 2002, Attachment & human development.

[46]  G. W. Rever.  Attachment and Loss. Vol. 1. Attachment , 1972 .

[47]  J. Allen,et al.  Attachment theory as a framework for understanding sequelae of severe adolescent psychopathology: an 11-year follow-up study. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[48]  S. Read,et al.  Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  Kelly A. Brennan,et al.  Dimensions of Adult Attachment, Affect Regulation, and Romantic Relationship Functioning , 1995 .

[50]  R. Kessler,et al.  Adult attachment in a nationally representative sample. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[51]  Jeffry A. Simpson,et al.  Support seeking and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation: The role of attachment styles. , 1992 .

[52]  O. Mayseless,et al.  Adolescents' Attachment Representations and Their Capacity for Intimacy in Close Relationships. , 2007 .

[53]  Jay Belsky,et al.  Infant–mother attachment security, contextual risk, and early development: A moderational analysis , 2002, Development and Psychopathology.

[54]  E. Adam,et al.  Adult attachment classification and self-reported psychiatric symptomatology as assessed by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2. , 1996, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[55]  Judith A. Feeney,et al.  Assessing adult attachment. , 1994 .

[56]  K. Bartholomew.  Avoidance of Intimacy: An Attachment Perspective , 1990 .

[57]  C. Hammen,et al.  Interpersonal attachment cognitions and prediction of symptomatic responses to interpersonal stress. , 1995, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[58]  J. Bowlby,et al.  Attachment and Loss. Vol. 3. Loss, Sadness and Depression . By John Bowlby. (Hogarth Press and Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1980.) £12.00. , 1981, Journal of Biosocial Science.

[59]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[60]  L. A. Kurdek,et al.  On Being Insecure about the Assessment of Attachment Styles , 2002 .

[61]  Patricia K. Kerig,et al.  Couple observational coding systems , 2004 .