Attachment styles and anxiety of rejecters in intimate relationships
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Submission date: 2014-10-10
Final revision date: 2014-12-01
Acceptance date: 2014-12-01
Online publication date: 2014-12-24
Publication date: 2014-12-08
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2014;2(4):185-195
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ABSTRACT
Background
In this paper, the problem of the lack of stability of intimate female-male relationships, the intensity of which is currently increasing, is presented. Attention is focused on early-childhood attachment styles and anxiety in rejecters in intimate relationships.
Participants and procedure
The research included 120 individuals: 60 individuals who had dropped 3-15 partners (on average, M = 3.77 partners) and 60 individuals from the control group. The following research tools were applied: the Attachment Styles Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).
Results
The results showed that rejecters in intimate relationships obtained higher results than individuals from the control group in an avoidant and an anxious-ambivalent attachment style, and lower ones in a secure attachment style, as well as higher ones in anxiety as a trait. Sex itself was not a differentiating factor in any of the studied variables. An avoidant attachment style, and anxiety as a trait, were predictors of being a rejecter.
Conclusions
The obtained results confirm the fundamental findings of the theory of attachment indicating that the lower the level of a secure style is, the lower is the level of interpersonal skills.
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