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Date

1998

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This study examined the relationship of adult attachment style to various personality factors and family interaction patterns. Participants in the study were 227 undergraduate students who completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, and the Structural Family Interaction Scale-Revised. Regression analyses were used to explore the relationships of theory-consistent personality and family factors to each of three attachment styles. The avoidant attachment style was found to be associated with somatic complaints, social isolation, family disengagement, and family conflict avoidance, emphasizing the more covert expressions of affect associated with this style. However, the idea that the avoidant interactional style represents an internalization of the relationship to a primary caregiver in childhood was not strongly supported. The anxious/ambivalent attachment style was associated with both anxiety and depression, the overt expressions of affect, and was also associated with the presence of cross-generational triads in the family. Other family factors, however, showed no statistically significant relationship to the style; possible explanations for this are discussed in light of attachment theory and other studies of adult attachment style. The secure style showed the anticipated relationships with maladaptive personality patterns. It was inversely related to depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, and social isolation. Of the maladaptive family patterns examined, however, the secure style showed a significant inverse relationship with only family conflict avoidance. The lack of association between secure attachment and the factors of spousal conflict resolution and parent-child cohesion are discussed in light of other research on family interaction and the nature of the instruments used in the study.

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Personality assessment., Psychology, Personality., Attachment behavior., Sociology, Individual and Family Studies., Psychology, Clinical., Personality., Families

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