Attachment Styles In Intimate Relationships

Attachment styles affect everything from partner selection to the progress of intimate relationship, or even how the relationship ends. There is growing evidence that attachment styles are closely connected with stress in intimate relationships. Though individuals with a secure attachment style can deal with stressful life events properly, individuals with an anxious-ambivalent or an avoidant attachment style are more likely to be exposed to chronic or acute stress (Simpson & Rholes, 2012).

Individuals with secure, avoidant, and anxious attachment styles have different perceptions and reactions when facing different stressors in their intimate relationships. According to the attachment diathesis-stress model Simpson et al. introduced in 1994,

As they are using avoidant coping strategies, they tend to reduce the negative feelings by self-reliance, which allows them to keep independent from their intimate partners and regain full control of themselves (Reynolds, Searight & Ratwik, 2014). They have doubts about “enduring romantic love”, and have beliefs that they do not need an intimate partner. Accordingly, in their negative stress model, their stressful feelings and the needs for attachment are temporarily suppressed. When their partners offer them comfort and support, they may escape from the situation. But in contrast, if their partners give them less reassurance, they may interpret this behavior as rejection. In a study focusing on the separation behaviors at airports, results shown that individuals with an avoidant attachment style perform less connection and seek less physical contact with their intimate partners than people with a secure attachment style (Lavy & Littman-Ovadia, 2011). Inevitably, in a stressful situation, individuals with an avoidance attachment style perceive and construe their partner’s behaviors, intentions in a more aggressive and hostile way, which results in the underestimation of the effort and care of their intimate partners, and may

Our hypothesis predicted that poor attachment styles including avoidant and anxious attachment styles can lead to stress in intimate relationships. The result of multiple pieces of research supported our hypothesis and additional analysis revealed that poor attachment styles do not only affect the stress level of the person with the attachment style but also deal harm to the intimate relationship (Randall & Bodenmann, 2009; Doumas et al., 2008).

In sum, adult attachment in romantic relationships is very complex, the attachment theory and model for adults generalized from what we have now between infant-caregiver attachment may be not sufficient. Future studies may eventually lead to an empirically confirmed understanding of how attachment styles affect or result in stress in intimate