Attachment Style and Romantic Relationships
Do attachment styles really affect our romantic relationships? A good starting
point for answering this question might be to ask how happy people are with
their romantic relationships. As you might expect, several studies find that
adults with a secure attachment style tend to be more satisfied with their rela-
tionships than people in the other categories (Brennan & Shaver, 1995; Keelan,
Dion, & Dion, 1994; Pistole, 1989; Simpson, 1990; Tucker & Anders, 1999).
This phenomenon also works in the other direction. That is, people are morelikely to be happy with their relationship if they have a partner with a secure
attachment style. And perhaps not surprisingly, adults with secure attachment
styles tend to have partners with a similar attachment style (Brennan &Shaver, 1995; Collins & Read, 1990; Kirkpatrick & Davis, 1994).
The link between romantic relationships and early parent-child relation-
ships was established in one study that began by categorizing the kind ofrelationship 12-month olds had with thei r caregivers (Simpson, Collins, Tran, &
Haydon, 2007). The researchers followed these children until they were in their
mid-20s. Compared to children in other ca tegories, the secure infants were more
socially competent in elementary school , had closer friendships in high school,
and experienced more positive roman tic relationships as young adults.
Another team of investigators measured attachment style in a sample of
52-year-olds (Klohnen & Bera, 1998). The researchers already had measures
of relationship satisfaction from when the participants were 21, 27, and 43
years old. As expected, the secure adults in the sample had a long history of
stable and satisfying romantic relationships. As shown in Figure 6.5, the secure
participants were more likely to be married and to stay married than the avoi-
dant participants. By age 52, 95% of the secure adults had been married, and
406080100Avoidant Secure
52 43 27Percentage Married
Age
FIGURE 6.5 Marriage Rates as a Function of Attachment Style
Source: Adapted from “Behavioral and experimental patterns of avoidantly and securely attached women
across adulthood,” by Eva C. Klohnen, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998, 74, 211 –223.
Copyright © 1998 American Psychological Association.144 CHAPTER 6 The Neo-Freudian Theories