Since the percentage of single adults is steadily increasing, the reasons for this
development have become a matter of growing interest. Hereby, an individual’s
attachment style may have a connection to the partnership status. In the following
analysis, attachment style, gender, age, education, and income were compared in regard
to the partnership status. Furthermore, an analysis of variance was computed to compare
the attachment style within different groups. In 2012, a sample of 1,676 representative
participants was used. The participants were aged 18 to 60 (M = 41.0, SD = 12.3);
54% of the sample were female, and 40% were single. Attachment-related attitudes
were assessed with the German version of the adult attachment scale (AAS). Single
adult males did not show a more anxious attachment style than single adult females
or females in relationships. Younger, i.e., 18 to 30 years old, paired individuals showed
greater attachment anxiety than single individuals, whereby single individuals between
the ages of 31 to 45 showed greater attachment anxiety than individuals in relationships.
In addition, single individuals more frequently had obtained their high school diploma in
contrast to individuals in relationships. Concerning attachment style, the individuals who
had not completed their high school diploma showed less faith in others independent
of singlehood or being in a relationship. Concerning age, older single individuals, i.e.,
46 to 60 years, felt less comfortable in respect to closeness and showed less faith in
others compared to paired individuals. Logistic regression showed that individuals were
not single if they did not mind depending on others, showed high attachment anxiety,
were older, and had lower education. An income below € 2000/month was linked to a
nearly 13-fold increase of likelihood of being single. In sum, the attachment style had
a differential age-dependent association to singlehood versus being in a relationship.
Education played also a role, exclusively concerning faith in others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:80402 |
| Date | 15 August 2022 |
| Creators | Katja, Petrowski, Schurig, Susan, Schmutzer, Gabriele, Brähler, Elmar, Stöbel-Richter, Yve |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 1738 |
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