1. family and parenting

5
Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological
Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Abstract
Attachment theory predicts that early experiences with caregivers affect the quality of
individuals’ later (romantic) relationships and, consequently, their mental health. The
present study examined the role of intimacy in the current romantic relationship as a
possible mediator of the relationship between adult attachment and psychological
distress in a clinical and community sample. Results indicated that attachment security
was positively, whereas attachment insecurity was negatively related to intimacy in the
current romantic relationship. Furthermore, security of attachment was negatively
related to loneliness and depression and positively to satisfaction with life. The reverse
held for attachment insecurity. Mediational analyses revealed that intimacy in the
current relationship only partially mediated the relationship between attachment and
psychological distress. Although near perfect mediation was found for fearful
attachment in the clinical sample and for preoccupied attachment in the community
sample, the findings with regard to the other attachment styles were less clear-cut.
Apart from the hypothesized indirect effect of attachment on psychological distress
through intimacy, a direct effect of attachment on psychological distress remains. The
implication of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Pielage, S.B., Luteijn, F. & Arrindell, W.A. (2005) Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12, 455-464.
Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Introduction
A basic premise of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980) is that early
experiences with caregivers affect one’s functioning in later (romantic) relationships.
Repeated interactions with caregivers become internalized as mental models, or
‘internal working models of attachment’, that serve to guide social behaviour and
expectations in subsequent relationships across the life span. According to attachment
theory, consistent and sensitive parenting leads to the development of a secure
attachment style, characterized by interpersonal trust and comfort with intimacy. In
contrast, children with insecure attachment styles, whose bids for security have been
either ignored or rebuffed (leading to avoidant attachments) or responded to
inconsistently (leading to ambivalent attachments), will acquire models of others as
rejecting or inconsistent (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters & Wall, 1978).
As adults, secure individuals report having more intimate, satisfying and enduring
relationships than their insecurely attached counterparts (Collins & Read, 1990;
Feeney, 1999; Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Individuals with an insecure attachment style
are characterized by a lack of confidence and trust in the supportiveness of significant
others and are hampered in their support-seeking behaviour (Simpson, Rholes &
Nelligan, 1992; Collins & Feeney, 2004). Indirect evidence supports the hypothesis
that insecure childhood attachment constitutes a risk factor for later marital difficulties
(Ricks, 1985; Birtchnell, 1993).
For most individuals, a satisfying intimate relationship is the most important
source of happiness and well-being (Veenhoven, 1987; Russell & Wells, 1994).
Conversely, being in a distressed relationship constitutes a major risk factor for
psychopathology (Burman & Margolin, 1992). According to attachment theory,
individuals with an insecure attachment style risk meeting with unsatisfactory intimate
relationships which increases their vulnerability to the development of psychological
and physical complaints. As Bowlby puts it: "the psychology and psychopathology of emotion is
found to be in large part the psychology and psychopathology of affectional bonds" (1980, pg. 40).
Thus, in essence Bowlby put forward a mediational model where attachment
influences psychological functioning through the quality of one’s affectional bonds
(see Figure 5.1).
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Intimacy
(Mediator)
Adult attachment style
(independent variable)
Psychological distress
(dependent variable)
Figure 5.1: Mediational model where intimacy in the current romantic relationship mediates the relationship
between attachment style and psychological distress
Although a number of studies have demonstrated the predicted associations between
attachment styles and relationship quality on the one hand, (for an overview see
Feeney, 1999) and between attachment styles and psychological distress on the other
hand (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991; Carnelly, Pietromonaco & Jaffe, 1994; Murphy
& Bates, 1997), studies that report on the interplay between these variables are sparse.
The present study was designed to examine these interrelationships in an effort to
explore the mechanism underlying the link between attachment styles and
psychological distress. Given that insecurely attached individuals tend to be more
vulnerable to the development of psychological complaints, the goal of the present
study was to examine the extent to which this could be accounted for by a lack of
intimacy in their current romantic relationship.
Specifically, the aims of the present study were to test three hypotheses regarding
the interrelationships between attachment, intimacy and psychological distress in a
clinical and community sample.
First, it was predicted that security of attachment would be positively related to
intimacy, whereas insecurity of attachment would be negatively related to intimacy in
the current romantic relationship.
Second, it was anticipated that security of attachment would be negatively related to
psychological distress, whereas insecurity of attachment would be positively related to
psychological distress.
Third, it was hypothesized that intimacy in the current romantic relationship would
function as a mediator in the attachment - psychological distress relationship.
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Method
Participants and procedure
The clinical sample consisted of 92 individuals in the process of psychotherapy who
were recruited at several outpatient clinics in the North of the Netherlands. All
patients agreed through a written informed consent to the use of their data for
scientific purposes. Participating patients were requested to respond to a series of
questionnaires regarding “close relationships”. In order to ensure that patients were
involved in established relationships, they were required to have dated their partner
for at least three months prior to participation. The clinical sample contained 65
women, 25 men, and two individuals who did not report their gender. The mean age
was 36 years (SD=9.6); 51 (57%) were married, 17 (19%) were cohabiting and 22
(24%) were Living Apart Together (LAT-relationship). The duration of the current
romantic relationship varied from 3 months to 32 years, with a mean duration of 11.4
years (SD=9.6). The educational level of the clinical sample was high: 5% had a
primary school level, 33% a higher grade elementary or secondary school level and
62% had a higher educational level.
The community sample consisted of 54 men, 65 women, and two individuals who
did not specify their gender (N=121) from the general community who agreed to
participate in a mail survey on “close relationships”. Participants were required to have
dated for at least three months prior to participation. The mean age was 38.2
(SD=12.6) years; 78 (65%) were married, 19 (16%) were cohabiting and 23 (19%) had
a LAT relationship. The duration of the current romantic relationship ranged from
three months to 43 years with an average of 15.2 years (SD=12.2). The educational
level of the community sample was as follows: 18% had a primary school level, 38% a
higher grade elementary or secondary school level and 44% a higher education level.
Measures
To provide comprehensive assessment of adult attachment, two measures were
employed. First, attachment was assessed with the Relationship Questionnaire
(Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Participants were requested to indicate on a 7point scale the extent to which each of the four attachment prototypes, secure,
dismissing, preoccupied, and fearful, applied to them. For example, the formulation of
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
the prototypical description intended to assess fearful attachment reads as follows: ‘I
am uncomfortable getting close to others. I want emotionally close relationships, but I find it difficult to
trust others completely, or to depend on them. I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become
too close to others’.
Second, participants completed the Adult Attachment Scale (de Jonge, 1995), a 34item scale measuring secure (7 items), dismissing (14 items), preoccupied (8 items) and
fearful (5 items) attachment. The items employ a 5-point response format, from 1=
‘not at all like me’ to 5 = ‘very much like me’. In view of differences in subscale
length, Spearman-Brown corrections were used by increasing the number of scale
items for each subscale to 20. Alpha reliability coefficients for the community sample
were .73 for secure, .91 for the fearful, .93 for preoccupied and .98 for dismissing
attachment. In the clinical sample alpha coefficients were .81 for secure, .80 for
fearful, .86 for preoccupied and .98 for dismissing attachment.
In both samples, intimacy was assessed with the Dutch version of the Waring
Intimacy Questionnaire (WIQ; Waring, 1984; Luteijn, Arrindell, Huiskes, Kits, Lenters
& Sanderman, 1993). An ‘Overall Intimacy score’ summarizes the degree of intimacy
in the current relationship based on the scales’ 44 best discriminating items. The
Cronbach's alpha reliability for the overall intimacy score was .87 in the clinical and
.88 in the community sample.
Current Psychological Distress
Loneliness was assessed with the Loneliness Scale developed by de Jong-Gierveld and
Kamphuis (1985). This scale has shown to have good psychometric qualities and
contains 11 items, e.g., “I really miss a good friend” and "I have many people whom I
can trust completely". The possible answers ranged from (1) completely agree to (5)
completely disagree. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the loneliness scale
was .89 in both the clinical and community sample.
Depressive symptomatology was assessed with the Dutch version of Center for
epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Schroevers, Sanderman, van Sonderen, &
Ranchor; 2001; Radloff, 1979). This 20-item scale assesses current depressive
symptoms in the general population. Subjects rate each item on a four-point scale
ranging from (1) none of the time to (5) all of the time, indicating the degree to which
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
they experienced each symptom in the previous week. Cronbach’s alpha reliability for
the CES-D was .92 in the clinical and .87 in the community sample.
Satisfaction with life was assessed with the Dutch version of the Satisfaction with Life
Scale (Arrindell, Meeuwesen & Huyse, 1991; Arrindell, Heesink, & Feij, 1999). This
scale was designed to assess a person’s global judgement of life satisfaction. The scale
consists of five items e.g. ‘In most ways my life is close to my ideal’ (Pavot & Diener,
1993). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the SWLS was .81 in the clinical and .85 in the
community sample.
Results
Preliminary Analyses
As a preliminary analysis, the potential influence of gender was examined. A
Multivariate Analysis of Variance, with gender as the independent and the four
attachment styles, intimacy in the current romantic relationship, depression, loneliness
and satisfaction with life as dependent variables proved nonsignificant in both the
clinical sample (F(12, 89) = 1.22; p = .29) and the community sample (F(12, 110) =
.78; p = .67). The data for men and women were therefore analyzed jointly.
Biographical variables, such as age, level of education and duration of the romantic
relationship did not relate substantially to attachment, intimacy, depression, loneliness
and satisfaction with life. Therefore, results will be reported for the entire sample.
As a second preliminary analysis, differences between the clinical and community
sample were analysed. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance, with ‘group’ as the
independent and the 4 attachment styles, intimacy in the current romantic
relationship, depression, loneliness and satisfaction with life as dependent variables
proved highly significant (F(12, 214 ) = 5.65; p < .001). Means and standard deviations
for both groups are reported in Table 5.1, as well as the differences between the
groups. Compared to the community sample, the clinical sample was less securely and
more insecurely attached. Patients experienced less intimacy in their current romantic
relationship, they were more depressed and lonely and less satisfied with their lives.
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Table 5.1: Means and Standard deviations of the clinical and community sample
Clinical sample
Community sample
M
SD
M
SD
F (12,204)
RQ- secure
3.74
1.91
4.67
1.80
12.88**
RQ- dismissing
3.01
1.74
3.10
1.81
.12
RQ- preoccupied
3.97
1.73
3.52
1.76
3.29+
RQ- fearful
4.58
1.94
3.53
1.88
15.27**
AAS-secure
21.68
2.38
22.43
2.50
4.75*
AAS-dismissing
33.35
8.11
28.66
7.45
18.59**
AAS- preoccupied
18.46
4.02
17.15
3.71
5.48*
AAS- fearful
13.63
3.10
11.54
2.57
27.91**
Intimacy in the current
romantic relationship
28.98
7.81
35.31
6.85
38.12**
Loneliness
28.43
10.47
21.58
8.94
25.51**
Depresssion
18.25
11.32
10.07
7.71
37.68**
Satisfaction with life
21.13
6.90
27.50
6.07
49.38**
Attachment
N clinical sample = 92; N community sample = 113; * p < .05; ** p < .001; + p=.07
Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed among all measures in
the study. It should be noted that two attachment measures were included to provide
a more complete picture of participant’s attachment styles and to assess the
convergence among the attachment scales. As can be seen from Tables 5.2 and 5.3,
convergence among the RQ and the AAS was generally modest, ranging from .04 for
the dismissing attachment style in the clinical sample to .55 for the preoccupied style
in the community sample. Interestingly, there was a very high correlation between the
dismissing and fearful attachment styles. As researchers have recently begun to
emphasize the importance of using multi-item dimensional scales to measure adult
attachment (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998; Fraley & Waller, 1998), and in view of
several methodological reservations regarding the stability of the RQ across time and
individuals (Pielage, Barelds & Gerlsma, 2006; Pielage, Gerlsma & Barelds, 2006), only
results pertaining to the multi-item adult attachment scale will be reported here. As
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
expected, security of attachment was positively related, whereas insecurity of
attachment was negatively related to intimacy in the current romantic relationship.
Furthermore, attachment security was negatively related to both loneliness and
depression and positively to satisfaction with life. The reverse was true for attachment
insecurity.
Table 5.2: Pearson Product moment correlations between adult attachment style (RQ
and AAS), intimacy in the current romantic relationship (WIQ), depression (Ces-d),
loneliness and satisfaction with life (SWLS) in the clinical sample (N=92)
1
2
3
4
5
-
.04
-.15
-
-.15
.11
.03
-
.20
-
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Attachment
1. RQ – secure
2. RQ – dismissing
3. RQ – preoccupied
4. RQ – fearful
5. AAS – secure
6. AAS – dismissing
7. AAS – preoccupied
8. AAS – fearful
-.64** .34** -.51** -.31** -.51**
-.04
-.43** -.31**
.13
-.29**
.23*
.55** .31** -.27** .29**
.39**
-.24*
-.18
.67**
.26*
.42** -.29** .45**
.35**
-.25*
-
-.21*
-.18
-.24*
.36** -.42** -.27**
.41** .50** -.54** .63**
-
.48** -.30** .29**
-
.00
.31**
-.23*
-
-.24*
.19
.16
-.40** .32**
-.10
.29**
.49**
-.49**
.47**
-.38**
.36**
-.20
Intimacy
9. WIQ
-
-.68** -.53** .55**
Current psychological functioning
10. Loneliness
11. Depression
12. Satisfaction with life
-
.56** -.60**
-
-.72**
-
N = 92; * p < .05; ** p < .001; + p=.07
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
Table 5.3: Pearson Product moment correlations between adult attachment style (RQ
and AAS), intimacy in the current romantic relationship (WIQ), depression (Ces-d),
loneliness and satisfaction with life (SWLS) in the community sample (N=113)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
-.28**
.21*
-.01
.28**
9
10
11
12
-
.28**
-.10
-
-.01
-.34**
-.16
-.34**
.16
-.21* -.25**
.06
.04
-.21*
-.11
-.05
-.01
-.13
.09
-
-.08
-
-.17
.12
.27**
.13
-.04
.07
.22*
.04
-.19*
.50**
.13
-
-.32**
-.12
-.09
-
.28**
.45** -.56** .65**
.59** -.43**
.19*
.38**
Attachment
1. RQ – secure
2. RQ – dismissing
3. RQ – preoccupied
4. RQ – fearful
5. AAS – secure
6. AAS – dismissing
7. AAS – preoccupied
8. AAS – fearful
-
.27** -.31** .27**
-
.32** -.27**
.29** -.38** -.33** .32**
-.20*
.10
-.34** .31**
-.13
.37** -.36**
Intimacy
9. WIQ
-
-.56** -.45** .53**
Current psychological functioning
10. Loneliness
-
.43** -.55**
11. Depression
-
-.50**
12. Satisfaction with life
-
N = 113; * p < .05; ** p < .001; + p=.07
Mediational analyses
Mediational analyses were conducted to investigate whether intimacy in the current
romantic relationship could account for the relationships found between attachment
and psychological distress. Given the strong overlap between the measures of
psychological functioning (depression, loneliness and reverse satisfaction with life), the
three variables were combined to form the sumscore ‘psychological distress’. It should
be noted that reporting on the three variables separately would require reporting as
many as twenty-four regression analyses. As all results pertaining to the combined
sumscore ‘psychological distress’ were similar to the analyses done with each of the
variables separately, and in view of clarity of presentation, we decided to report solely
on the combined sumscore ‘psychological distress’.
Following the method outlined by Baron & Kenny (1986), mediation is established
when the following conditions are met: (1) a significant relationship is found between
the independent variable (in this case attachment style) and the presumed mediator
(intimacy in the current romantic relationship); (2) a significant relationship is found
between the presumed mediator (intimacy) and the dependent variable (psychological
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
distress) and (3) a significant association between the independent (attachment style)
and the dependent variable (psychological distress) is significantly reduced after
statistically controlling for the presumed mediator. Conditions 1 and 2 were met in all
cases. Therefore, four separate multiple regression analyses were conducted in both
the clinical and community sample to test the mediational model for each case.
In each regression analysis, psychological distress was regressed on one of the four
attachment styles first. Subsequently, on the second step, intimacy in the current
romantic relationship was added to the regression equation to investigate whether the
amount of variance accounted for by attachment style would be reduced. The results
are presented in Table 5.4 and Table 5.5.
Table 5.4: Multiple regression statistics with psychological distress as the dependent
variable in the clinical sample (N=92)
R
adj. R2
.38
.14
.70
.48
f2
F
β
R2 change
Regression equation 1
Step 1
15.53**
Secure attachment
Step 2
-.38**
.92
42.22**
Secure attachment
-.16*
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.62**
.34**
Regression equation 2
Step 1
.62
.38
.75
.55
57.43**
Dismissing attachment
Step 2
.62**
1.22
56.06**
Dismissing attachment
.36**
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.49**
.17**
Regression equation 3
Step 1
.44
.18
.73
.52
21.56**
Preoccupied attachment
Step 2
.44**
1.08
49.23**
Preoccupied attachment
.26**
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.60**
.33**
Regression equation 4
Step 1
.35
.11
.69
.46
12.57**
Fearful attachment
Step 2
Fearful attachment
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
.35**
.85
39.62**
.09
.35**
-.64**
For the clinical group, when intimacy in the current romantic relationship was added
to each of the regression equations, the following results were obtained: (1) The
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
relationships between secure, dismissing, preoccupied attachment and psychological
distress were reduced but remained significant (2) The relationship between fearful
attachment and psychological distress was reduced and became non-significant.
Table 5.5: Multiple regression statistics with psychological distress as the dependent
variable and attachment style and intimacy as independent variables in the community
sample (N=116)
R
adj. R2
.42
.17
.69
.47
f2
F
β
R2 change
Regression equation 1
Step 1
23.50**
Secure attachment
Step 2
-.42**
.89
50.05**
Secure attachment
-.25**
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.57**
.30**
Regression equation 2
Step 1
.67
.47
.76
.57
101.26**
Dismissing attachment
Step 2
.67**
1.32
76.31**
Dismissing attachment
.49**
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.37**
.09**
Regression equation 3
Step 1
.25
.06
.66
.42
7.81**
Preoccupied attachment
Step 2
.25**
.72
42.14**
Preoccupied attachment
.13
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
.37**
-.62**
Regression equation 4
Step 1
.42
.17
.68
.45
24.95**
Fearful attachment
Step 2
.42**
.82
48.37**
Fearful attachment
.24**
Intimacy in the current romantic relationship
-.56**
.28**
The community sample showed the following results: (1) The relationships
between secure, dismissing and fearful attachment and psychological distress were
reduced but remained significant (2) the relationship between preoccupied attachment
and psychological distress was reduced and became nonsignificant.
The results indicate that intimacy in the current romantic relationship partially
mediates the relationship between attachment and psychological distress. Although
near perfect mediation was found for fearful attachment in the clinical sample, and
preoccupied attachment in the community sample, the findings with regard to the
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
other attachment styles were less clear-cut, indicating that apart from the indirect
effect through intimacy, attachment also has a direct, independent effect on
psychological distress.
Discussion
A close, intimate relationship with a romantic partner is probably the most important
attachment relationship in adult life. For most individuals, a satisfying romantic
relationship is an important source of happiness and wellbeing and a supportive
relationship may even protect individuals against the impact of adverse life-events
(Brown & Harris, 1975; Russell & Wells, 1999). In contrast, being in a distressed
relationship seems to be detrimental to a sense of well-being and psychological
functioning (Burman & Margolin, 1992).
Attachment theory suggests that insecurely attached individuals risk meeting with
unsatisfactory close relationships and that this in turn may prove to be a risk factor for
the development of psychopathology (Bowlby, 1980). In line with this hypothesis
previous research has shown that insecure attachment is negatively related to
relationship quality and positively to psychological complaints (Carnelly et al, 1994;
Feeney, 1999; Murphy & Bates, 1997; Shaver & Brennan, 1992). However, studies
reporting on the interrelationships between the three variables are sparse. In order to
delineate the mechanism through which attachment is associated with the
development of psychological distress, the present study addressed the question
whether the association found between attachment and psychological distress could
be accounted for by intimacy experienced in the current romantic relationship.
Overall, the results of the present study replicate previous findings in the sense that
security of attachment was positively related to intimacy in the current romantic and
negatively related to psychological distress, whereas insecurity of attachment was
negatively related to intimacy in the current romantic relationship and positively to
psychological distress. However, contrary to the expectation, mediational analysis
revealed that intimacy in the current romantic relationship only partially functioned as
a mediator between adult attachment and psychological distress. Although near
perfect mediation was found for fearful attachment in the clinical sample, and
preoccupied attachment in the community sample, the findings with regard to the
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
other attachment styles were less clear-cut, indicating that apart from an indirect effect
through intimacy, there is also a direct, independent effect of attachment on
psychological distress. Furthermore, it is possible that other variables than intimacy in
the current romantic relationship may influence the association between attachment
and psychological distress.
An asset of the present study was the inclusion of a clinical group. Most research
on attachment and close relationships is limited by a so-called ‘restriction of range’;
community samples are usually biased towards a secure attachment style as insecure
individuals may avoid or be hampered in the establishment of a long-term close
relationship. Indeed, the clinical sample was more insecurely and less securely attached
than the community sample. Furthermore, patients reported less intimacy in their
relationship, they experienced more loneliness and depression, and they were less
satisfied with their life in general. Interestingly, the pattern of findings in both groups
was similar, although they tended to be somewhat stronger for the clinical sample.
A point that deserves attention concerns the measurement of adult attachment. In
the present study, two self-report measures of adult attachment, the Relationship
Questionnaire and the Adult Attachment Scale, were used. To our surprise the
convergent validity was modest, with stronger relationships sometimes found between
different attachment styles (i.e. fearful with dismissing) than similar styles (dismissing
with dismissing). Furthermore, the associations found between the attachment styles
and depression, loneliness and satisfaction with life, differed between the two
attachment measures. For example, no association was found between loneliness and
the dismissing attachment prototype on the RQ whereas the dismissing style of the
AAS had the highest association with loneliness. Previous research has addressed the
question of the validity of self-report measurement of adult attachment (for reviews
see Bartholomew & Shaver, 1998; Crowell & Treboux, 1995; Crowell, Treboux &
Shaver, 1999; Stein, Jacobs, Ferguson, Allen, & Fonagy, 1998). Recently, Fraley &
Waller (1998) investigated the ‘typological model of attachment’ and found no
evidence for four distinct attachment prototypes. According to these authors their
data ‘indicate that the typological model traditionally favoured by attachment researchers does not
capture the natural structure of attachment security. Rather, they indicate that adult attachment is a
quantitatively distributed variable- a variable on which people differ in degree rather than in kind’ (p.
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
108). Fraley and Waller (1998) strongly suggest abandoning the idea of so-called
attachment styles and recommend that the latent structure of attachment styles (i.e.
avoidance and anxiety) be used in analyses. Perhaps, if the two attachment measures
that were used in this study would be compared on the latent dimensions of
attachment, convergent validity would improve. Future research should benefit from
current knowledge and use more sophisticated multi-item scales to measure adult
attachment.
Several limitations of the present study should be mentioned. First of all, as with all
studies relying solely on the use of self-report methods, the extent to which systematic
biases influenced participants’ responses is unclear. However, considering the fact that
the results presented here showed patterns that are largely consistent with previous
research, it is unlikely that general response styles affected the correlational pattern to
a very large extent.
Second, the use of a concurrent design, in which attachment style, intimacy in the
current romantic relationship, and psychological distress were assessed simultaneously,
rules out causal inferences. The results would be strengthened by longitudinal studies
assessing the extent to which insecure attachment is an antecedent, concomitant, or
consequent of adverse functioning in attachment relationships (see, for instance,
Feeney, Noller & Callan, 1994; Laible & Thompson, 2000).
Despite these limitations, the present study builds on previous research by
exploring the mechanisms through which insecure attachment may lead to the
development of psychological distress. Although attachment theory predicts that
people who have unsatisfactory early experiences with parents experience difficulty
establishing affectional bonds in later life, hardly anything is known about the
interpersonal mechanisms that may be involved. As Birtchnell (1993, p. 336) points
out: ‘Do people who were denied close involvements lack the capacity to form them, manifest an
excessive later need for them, form only insecure and untrusting ones, or avoid them altogether? Do
they select partners who resemble the frustrating parent or who are quite different; or do they perceive
and relate to everyone as though they were the frustrating parent?’
Future research would benefit from the recognition of the complexity of the link
between attachment, intimacy in relationships, and psychological distress. Identifying
the specific behavioural patterns through which insecurely attached individuals
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Adult attachment, Intimacy and Psychological Distress in a Clinical and Community Sample
develop less satisfying intimate relationships, and consequently psychological distress,
would not only contribute to our basic knowledge of attachment, it might ultimately
be useful for the development of counselling techniques that would allow insecurely
attached individuals to enjoy more satisfying and intimate relationships.
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102