Adult attachment theory continues to play an important role in explaining pathology within couples. Pornography is becoming more and more pervasive since the inception of the internet. This study looked at the relationship between insecure attachment, accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement with frequency of male pornography use. Little is known about pornography use and its impact on couple dynamics. This study specifically looked at pornography use predicting insecure attachment within couples. The sample was taken from the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) and consisted of 189 couples. Male pornography use was found to be a predictor of insecure attachment and low levels of responsiveness in him. The female partner's assessment of her male partner's low engagement, responsiveness, and accessibility in their relationship was predicted by his pornography use. These findings may inform therapists of the possibilities for direction in therapy when a couple is struggling with insecure attachment development.

There is substantial evidence that the strength of the therapeutic alliance in couples therapy is predictive of successful treatment outcome. However, little research has examined the factors that predict a strong therapeutic alliance in couples therapy. With evidence indicating that attachment styles play an important role in the development of healthy adult relationships, it was hypothesized that the attachment styles of partners in couples therapy would predict the development of a strong therapeutic alliance. Data from 115 heterosexual couples seen at a university-based MFT clinic in the southeastern region of the U.S. were used to test this hypothesis. Using multiple regression, results generally found that attachment styles generally predicted the therapeutic alliance among women, but there was only limited support among men. The results of the study suggest the importance of couples therapists being aware of attachment issues, especially among women, as they relate to the establishment of a strong therapeutic alliance.

The literature review revealed co-morbidity between adverse childhood experiences, adult psychopathology and alcohol dependence, although causality was questionable due to multiple variables. The current study used 54 clients at the acute end of the spectrum of severe alcohol dependence from a specialist tertiary substance misuse service (clients) and a control group of 54 non-problematic drinkers from an NHS working population (controls) to examine possible differences in security of attachment and maladaptive schemas and investigated how early relational experiences influenced core beliefs regarding self, others and intimate relationships and therapeutic implications for severely alcohol dependent clients’ engagement in specialist services. The study was divided into two sections: (1) quantitative analysis using Feeney, Noller and Hanrahan’s (1994) Attachment Style Questionnaire to measure attachment style and Young’s Schema Questionnaire (Young & Brown, 2001) to measure maladaptive schemas in the domain of disconnection and rejection and (2) qualitative analysis, using Interpretational Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore eight severely alcohol dependent clients’ subjective experiences of intimate relationships. Clients scored significantly lower in secure attachment style and significantly higher in both avoidant and ambivalent attachment style than controls and suggested overlapping between the two dimensions, known as ‘fearful avoidant’ attachment. Clients scored significantly higher than controls in all five sub-categories of maladaptive schemas in the domain of disconnection and rejection, namely mistrust/abuse, emotional deprivation, abandonment, social isolation/alienation and defectiveness/shame. IPA revealed common themes of negative parent-child interaction: physical and psychological abuse, neglect and explicit maternal rejection and emotional deprivation and hostile and abusive parent-parent interaction. These aetiological factors influenced fearful avoidant attachment and maladaptive core beliefs. Negation of children’s needs implicated an immaturely developed diffuseness of identity and defective self that inhibited formation of intimate adult relationships. A bio-psychosocial explanation suggested alcohol ameliorated hyper-vigilant anxiety and depression from adverse childhood experiences within a threatening family environment that implicated insecure attachment, maladaptive core beliefs and negative self-identity, inhibiting emotional intimacy. It advocated screening procedures and an integrated CBT and schema-based therapeutic approach for those at the more severe end of the spectrum of alcohol dependence deemed at risk of not engaging or disengaging prematurely from services.

<p>Major Depression is a common and complex disorder that is often difficult to treat. Mentalization, facilitated by secure attachment, has been found to serve as a protective function against Borderline Personality Disorder. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether mentalization has the same protective function against depression and to analyze the connection between mentalization and self-rated attachment. Furthermore, the relation between Anxious/Avoidant attachment patterns and the anaclitic/introjective sub-types of depression were examined. Twenty participants with Major Depressive Disorder were interviewed with the <em>Depression Specific Reflective Function Interview</em> (DSRF) and SCID-I. They also completed the self-report questionnaires Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR), Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) and Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The results revealed a relation between high mentalization ability as measured by DSRF and low levels of depression and between an anxious attachment pattern and introjective depression. Moreover, low scores on DSRF combined with high levels of anaclitic and introjective symptoms accounted for 65% of observer rated depression severity. The results suggest that depression treatment might benefit from focusing on increasing the mentalizing ability and reducing anxious attachment patterns and from an awareness of the symptoms characterized by both the introjective and anaclitic sub-types of depression.</p>

Major Depression is a common and complex disorder that is often difficult to treat. Mentalization, facilitated by secure attachment, has been found to serve as a protective function against Borderline Personality Disorder. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether mentalization has the same protective function against depression and to analyze the connection between mentalization and self-rated attachment. Furthermore, the relation between Anxious/Avoidant attachment patterns and the anaclitic/introjective sub-types of depression were examined. Twenty participants with Major Depressive Disorder were interviewed with the Depression Specific Reflective Function Interview (DSRF) and SCID-I. They also completed the self-report questionnaires Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR), Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) and Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The results revealed a relation between high mentalization ability as measured by DSRF and low levels of depression and between an anxious attachment pattern and introjective depression. Moreover, low scores on DSRF combined with high levels of anaclitic and introjective symptoms accounted for 65% of observer rated depression severity. The results suggest that depression treatment might benefit from focusing on increasing the mentalizing ability and reducing anxious attachment patterns and from an awareness of the symptoms characterized by both the introjective and anaclitic sub-types of depression.

Self-regulation in the context of a relationship, described as relationship "work," is a powerful predictor of relationship satisfaction. Identifying individual characteristics that predict the practice of relationship self-regulation (RSR) can inform clinical and couple relationship education interventions. Anxious and avoidant attachment have been linked to shortcomings in self-regulation in various contexts, and were hypothesized to be negatively associated to individual practice of RSR; neuroticism, a personality trait characterized by negative emotionality, was also hypothesized to be negatively related to RSR. Neuroticism was also tested as a moderator of the relationship between attachment and RSR. Data from first-married men (589) and women (912) taking the RELATE online questionnaire was used in correlational and OLS multiple regression analyses to test hypotheses and a research question. Bi-variate correlations for all predictor variables and RSR were negative and statistically significant for women and men. Regression analyses echoed those associations. Moderated multiple regression analyses testing a moderator effect of neuroticism were significant for anxious attachment and RSR, but not for avoidant attachment. Results are interpreted as support for the theoretical model tested.

The process of forming a committed, romantic relationship is described as a developmental phenomenon that cannot be accurately viewed without the context of prior relationship experiences because the social competencies that facilitate successful navigation of the tasks of relationship formation are developed in relationships. Furthermore, a cumulative relationship history that has a negative influence may lead to poor emotional health, further disrupting relationship formation processes through that mechanism. Hypotheses were tested using data from a prospective longitudinal study of participants (218 women, 174 men) who were not in a romantic relationship at initial data collection and reported on their relationship status 4 times over the course of 1 year while completing the READY or RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE). Cumulative relationship history and emotional health prospectively predicted the intercepts in longitudinal growth curve analyses of relationship status, while mediational analyses supported the hypothesis that emotional health partially mediates the influence of cumulative relationship history on relationship status. The findings support the developmental conceptualization that inter- and intrapersonal capacities increase the probability of forming a committed, romantic relationship over time.

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