Work

Are one’s attachment avoidance toward a particular person and his/her placement of this particular person in the attachment hierarchy inversely overlapping? Four bifactor-analysis studies

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Do one's hierarchical preference for attachment support from a particular person over other people (attachment hierarchy) and his/her discomfort with closeness and uneasiness about being dependent on that particular person (attachment avoidance) inversely overlap? These two constructs have been distinctly conceptualized. Attachment hierarchy has been regarded as a normative characteristic of attachment relationships, while attachment avoidance has been considered to reflect an individual difference of relationship quality. Employing bifactor analyses, we demonstrated a unidimensional general factor of these two concepts in four studies exploring Czech young adults' relationships with mother, father, friends, and romantic partner (Study 1); U.S. young adults' relationships with a romantic partner (Study 2); Czech adolescents' relationships with mother, father, and friends (Study 3); and Japanese young adults' relationships with mother, father, and romantic partner (Study 4). These convergent results provide the replicable and generalizable evidence that one's attachment avoidance toward a particular person and her/his placement of that particular person in the attachment hierarchy are inversely overlapping.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244278

Authors: Tomotaka Umemura, Aneta Siroňová, Lenka Lacinová, Emiko Taniguchi, Tatsuya Imai

Institutions: Hiroshima University, Masaryk University, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Nanzan University

Language: English

Topic: Attachment and Relationship Dynamics

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,749