Five studies examined the effects of chronic and contextual activation of attachment security on reactions to others' needs. The sense of attachment security was contextually primed by asking participants to recollect personal memories, read a story, or look at a picture of supportive others or by subliminally exposing them to proximity-related words. This condition was compared against the pri...

This study examined whether self-esteem mediated the association between peer relationships and internalizing problems (i.e., depression and social anxiety). A total of 7290 (3756 girls) adolescents (ages 13–18 years) completed self-report measures of peer relationships, including direct and indirect victimization, social isolation, friendship attachment (alienation and trust) and friendship qu...

Based on the Person-Environment Fit Model, the current prospective study explored the contribution of the interaction between spouses' ways of providing support and patients' attachment orientations to the patients' levels of psychological distress 6 months after experiencing a first Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). One hundred and eleven patients completed a measure of attachment orientations du...

OBJECTIVE In a large sample of community-dwelling older adults with histories of exposure to a broad range of traumatic events, we examined the extent to which appraisals of traumatic events mediate the relations between insecure attachment styles and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. METHOD Participants completed an assessment of adult attachment, in addition to measures...

OBJECTIVE Twelve-step mutual help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) rely heavily on social interactions and support to reduce drinking, but little is known about how individual differences in social behavior tendencies, such as adult attachment, affect 12-step group engagement and resulting benefits. This prospective study investigated relationships between the anxiety and avoidance dime...

OBJECTIVE The major aim of this research is to determine whether infants who were anxiously/resistantly attached in infancy develop more anxiety disorders during childhood and adolescence than infants who were securely attached. To test different theories of anxiety disorders, newborn temperament and maternal anxiety were included in multiple regression analyses. METHOD Infants participated i...

Attachment theory is a theory of affect regulation as it occurs in the context of close relationships. Early research focused on regulation of emotions through maintenance of proximity to supportive others (attachment figures) in times of need. Recently, emphasis has shifted to the regulation of emotion, and the benefits of such regulation for exploration and learning, via the activation of men...