Suchergebnisse

This study used an attachment theoretical framework to identify factors that contribute to postbreakup emotional adjustment. Individuals who recently experienced a breakup were examined twice over a 1‐month period. Greater desire to utilize an ex‐partner as an attachment figure predicted less emotional adjustment. Higher levels of attachment anxiety were associated with less emotional adjustment immediately after the breakup. People who reflected more about the breakup exhibited less emotional adjustment immediately after the breakup compared to people who reflected less, and also less emotional adjustment over the ensuing month if they also reported more attachment anxiety. The article highlights the importance of normative attachment processes, in addition to attachment orientations and coping strategies, for understanding postbreakup adjustment.

The current study outlined the timing of romantic attachment formation and its implications for relationship stability. People came to prefer their romantic partners for proximity and as a safe haven roughly 4 months after commitment; it took over 2 years to prefer them as their primary secure base. More anxiously attached people preferred their partner for proximity earlier than less anxiously attached people; more avoidantly attached people reported less preference for their romantic partner for all attachment components at the time of initial commitment compared to less avoidantly attached people. Those who more quickly represented their romantic partner as a secure base were less likely to subsequently break up; accordingly, normative attachment development may be prognostic for relationship stability.

We tested associations among empathic responsiveness, attachment style, and vagal tone (a physiologic index of emotion regulation) in 103 mother–adolescent dyads. Dyads discussed positive and negative topics and then separately reviewed a videotape of the interaction and rated their own and the other person's affect at one‐minute intervals. We used multilevel modeling to analyze the association between one's rating of the other person's affect and the other person's affect (empathic sensitivity), and the association between one's rating of the other person's affect and one's own affect (perceived concordance). Adolescents' empathic responsiveness was predicted by attachment style, vagal tone, and interactions between them. Adolescents with the greatest empathic responsiveness had low levels of attachment insecurity and high levels of vagal tone.