This study investigated the relationships among attachment styles, affect regulation, and outcome in a clinical sample receiving treatment for depression. Sixty-six clients completed questionnaire measures of adult attachment, dysfunctional attitudes, interpersonal problems, self-esteem, and depression. Clients’ levels of affect regulation were assessed with an observer-rated measure of affect regulation. The study’s purpose was to extend previous research by examining the relationship between adult attachment and affect regulation within a clinical context. Results indicated significant and positive associations between clients’ attachment security and their levels of affect regulation at early and late stages of psychotherapy. Late modulation of expression and arousal were found to mediate the relationship between pre-treatment attachment insecurity and outcome. Pre-treatment attachment avoidance, characterized by high discomfort with closeness, had a direct relationship with depressive symptoms not mediated by the cognitive-affective processes of affect regulation. Implications of present findings for the treatment of depression are discussed.

Studies of attachment in the community suggest that most people have secure attachment styles, but as many as 40% may have an insecure attachment style (Bakermans-Kranenburg & van Ijzendoorn 2009). Frightening parental behaviour has been found to predict disorganised attachment in infants, which in turn is associated with clinical disturbance in adolescence (Van Ijzendoorn, Schuengel & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 1999). Insecure attachment has been found to be disproportionately more common in many psychiatric disorders than the general population: including substance misuse, eating disorders, and Personality Disorder (PD). Transgenerational transmission of attachment has become widely researched over recent years and evidence has shown that a mother's attachment style can predict the attachment style of her infant (Ward, Ramsay, Turnbull, Steele, Steele, & Treasure, 2001). Research has found that a mothers' ability to mentalize about her own early attachment relationships has important implications in her transition to becoming a mother. Motherhood can be challenging for mothers who have good mental health, therefore women with poor mental health may find the transition to motherhood especially stressful. The aim of the current study was to give voice to mothers who have been silenced in many ways, to learn from their struggles and to help services develop more effective ways to reach 'hard to reach' vulnerable mothers. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1984) was conducted with eight mothers who were attending a Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT; Bateman & Fonagy, 2004) group designed for mothers who had caused harm to their children and had subsequently had them removed from their care. Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the AAI transcripts and five main themes emerged: 'Love and loss', 'Change and confusion', 'Families and normality', 'Safety and boundaries' and 'Strength and vulnerability'. The findings contribute to the field of maternal mental health research and clinical implications are discussed at an individual, organisational and societal level.

This study examined the relationships among adult attachment, cognitive vulnerabilities for depression and anxiety, affect regulation strategies and psychological distress symptoms. To examine these questions, a total of 259 participants (150 females, 109 males) completed measures assessing the above mentioned variables. The structural equation modeling results indicated that attachment anxiety was related to emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff, as well as cognitive vulnerabilities for anxiety and depression. Attachment avoidance was associated with emotional cutoff and cognitive vulnerabilities for anxiety and depression. In turn, cognitive vulnerabilities for depression were related to both depression and anxiety symptoms, whereas cognitive vulnerabilities for anxiety were not related to either depression or anxiety. However, neither cognitive vulnerabilities nor affect regulation strategies mediated the relationship between adult attachment and psychological distress symptoms. Conceptual and measurement issues are addressed and clinical and treatment implications of these findings are discussed.

Because of the numerous ways to operationalize power, much of the literature about power in relationships has not been cohesive. However, to understand when and how perceptions of power are associated with behaviors in relationships, multiple conceptualizations of power must be considered along with personal characteristics. The present study tested how perceptions of general power and situational power interact to predict negative behaviors during relationship conflict for people of various attachment orientations. Additionally, we tested if effects remained stable or changed over the early years of marriage. We found that low general and low situational influence did interact to predict less hostility than different combinations of influence, which did not support my hypothesis. Largely, we did not find systematic support that attachment style was a relevant moderator in considering influence and negative conflict behavior, with one interaction between general influence, situational influence, gender, and avoidance as an exception. Finally, we found that the proposed effects did not differ over time.

Much of the literature regarding relational aggression in romantic relationships has focused on the behaviors and outcomes of the actor and victim independently. Additionally, the relationships studied usually cover emerging adult samples, and rarely expand to long-term committed relationships, such as cohabiting or married couples. In this paper I sought to determine if relationally aggressive behaviors in long-term committed relationships over time resulted as a function of individual predictors (e.g. neuroticism), or as a process of couple interactions (e.g. couple attachment); and how these traits directly and indirectly (through relational aggression) influenced relationship quality. An Actor Partner Independence Model (APIM) was run using 1,558 individuals from the RELATE study. Anxious attachment was the strongest predictor of relational aggression. For both men and women, participating in relationally aggressive behaviors had a direct influence on their own relationship quality. Anxiously attached partners were more likely to be relationally aggressive and to have more relationally aggressive partners. Female, as well as male, relational aggression partially mediated the link between male and female anxious attachment, and female relationship quality. For men, only their own relational aggression mediated the link between male and female anxious attachment, and their own relationship quality.

Unfulfilled attachment related needs and wants are viewed by many therapists as the heart of couple distress (Johnson & Whiffen, 2003; Johnson, 2004). As a result, efforts to discover and utilize therapeutic processes that encourage couples to identify and appropriately respond to their partner's core attachment needs and wants continue to increase. This study served as a pilot study for a planned, larger-scale investigation examining enactments as a potential best-practice change mechanism to strengthen secure attachment in marital therapy. Twelve couples were randomly assigned to one of two possible experimental groups. Group 1 experienced three therapist-centered therapy sessions, followed by three enactment-centered sessions. Group 2 experienced three enactment-centered sessions followed by three therapist-centered sessions. Before each experimental session, both spouses independently completed a measure assessing their attachment security to their spouse over the past week. After each experimental session, both spouses independently completed a measure assessing how their attachment security to their spouse changed during the session. Each participant's scores were averaged and analyzed descriptively to explore possible trends and trajectories regarding the relationship between an enactment-focused clinical process and secure attachment and how it compared to a therapist-centered clinical process. The results of this pilot study provide preliminary support of enactments as an effective treatment protocol for therapists to help couples strengthen their secure attachment. Findings revealed trends suggesting that enactment-focused therapy sessions tended to increase overall couple secure attachment, perhaps superior to that of a solely therapist-centered approach.

Although adult attachment has been the focus of a great deal of relationship research, few studies have attempted to examine how adult attachment style may be related to relationship initiation. This study investigates how adult attachment is associated with dating processes and patterns in a sample (N = 587) of college students at a private religious university. Results indicate that attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are related to a pattern of being mostly dateless in a twenty-five week period. Furthermore, attachment avoidance but not anxiety is related to having fewer relationships in the period. Along with attachment avoidance and anxiety, being less attractive was also predictive of being mostly dateless in the measured period, as was being female. Physical attractiveness is the strongest predictor of having dates, as well as having relationships, but is not predictive of relationship length.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine adult attachment patterns and ethnic experience and the relationship on social competence. There are limited studies that have examined the differences among racially and ethnically diverse populations. A total of 60 university undergraduate students completed the Relationship Questionnaire, Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, Measure of Adolescent Hetersocial Competence, and the Scale of Ethnic Experience. Results showed that some differences existed between the two groups in terms of attachment patterns. Ethnic identity was related to social competence with both groups. It is suggested that ethnic experience may be useful for studying social competence.

Adult attachment has been found to play an important role for romantic relationship satisfaction. Specifically, the existent literature generally suggests that attachment anxiety is negatively related to relationship satisfaction. However, the underlying mechanism for this link still needs further exploration. The present study examined the direct and indirect effect of attachment anxiety on relationship satisfaction via two distinct relationship commitment variables: constraint commitment and dedication commitment. The final sample included 146 unmarried participants who were in a romantic relationship for at least three months. Results of multiple regression analyses on the indirect effect model indicated that attachment anxiety had a significant direct effect on relationship satisfaction as well as a significant indirect effect on relationship satisfaction via constraint commitment. However, the hypothesized indirect effect through dedication commitment was not supported. Findings are discussed from the adult attachment perspective. Counseling implications, limitations, and future research directions are outlined.

Graduate students in mental health service training programs are at risk of experiencing burnout. Using adult attachment theory as the guiding framework, this study examined a conceptual model which depicted the direct and indirect effect of attachment insecurity on burnout and the subsequent psychological distress via low self-compassion and emotion regulation difficulty with two cultural samples recruited from the U.S. and Taiwan, respectively. The final sample included 216 U.S. mental health graduate trainees and 201 Taiwanese trainees. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings from the final models best supported by the data revealed that in both cultural groups, attachment anxiety contributed to lower self-compassion which subsequently resulted in greater burnout and that emotion regulation did not play a mediational role in the models. Results also demonstrated cultural differences in several paths of the research model. For the U.S. sample, only higher attachment anxiety indirectly contributed to more psychological distress through low self-compassion and burnout was best positioned as an outcome variable similar to psychological distress, instead of being a mediator. For the Taiwanese sample, on the other hand, both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance demonstrated significant indirect effects on higher psychological distress through lower self-compassion and burnout was a 2nd tired mediator through which attachment anxiety indirectly contributed to higher psychological distress. These findings advanced our understanding of the role of adult attachment insecurity in the development of burnout and psychological distress for graduate trainees in mental health fields, as well as the possible cultural differences in the observed variables and their relations. Counseling implications, limitations, and future research directions were discussed.