This study explored whether patterns of stability or change in adult attachment styles were associated with corresponding changes in self-confidence, problem coping styles, and distress. Two hundred seven students completed measures of the key variables near the start and toward the end of their freshman year. Participants were classified into change groups on the basis of their successive scores on a measure of adult attachment style. Results indicated that (a) change group had significant main effects on selfconfidence ratings and problem coping styles, and (b) time and change group had significant main and interaction effects on the set of distress measures. Implications of the findings for an attachment theory-informed perspective on the transitional adjustment of entering freshmen are discussed.

Understanding the role and function of individual differences contributing to student distress and to stress-related coping is an important concern for college counselors and student personnel workers. To adequately address this concern, investigations with a basis in theory are especially needed because simple descriptive studies are limited in clarifying why certain person variables may be especially important and how these variables may affect the experience of distress through their more direct impact on coping processes. Drawing on attachment theory, this study examined relations among students' adult attachment orientations, problem coping styles, and current levels of distress. Guided by findings from the adult attachment literature, we proposed and tested a model wherein problem coping styles mediated the impact of insecure attachment orientations on distress. AN ATTACHMENT THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON COPING AND DISTRESSAttachment theory (Bowlby, 1982(Bowlby, , 1988) is principally concerned with the nature of close, enduring emotional bonds, or attachments, and how these unique relationships affect the life course. Bowlby (1988) argued that the quality of early relationships with primary caregivers shape human beings' self-images of competence and lovability, as well as their general expectations about the trustworthiness and dependability of others to provide assistance in times of need. Children who develop a secure attachment bond with their caregivers experience these adult figures as warm and consistently responsive to their emotional needs yet also encouraging of autonomous exploration. As a result, within the first year of life, securely attached children are assumed to form generally favorable cognitive schemas of themselves and of others and to demonstrate appropriate development of their affect regulation capabilities. By contrast, children who develop insecure attachments with their caregivers experience these persons either as inconsistently responsive to, overcontrolling of, or consistently rejecting their bids for care and support. As a result, insecurely attached children are assumed to internalize less favorable schemas of themselves and of others, either viewing themselves as unlovable or others as undependable, or both. These interpersonal orientations are further assumed to dispose the insecurely attached child toward less functional forms of affect regulation that emphasize either chronic hypervigilance and proximity-seeking or social avoidance and emotional disengagement. Moreover, Bowlby (1988) conjectured that, once formed, both secure and insecure attachment orientations would be relatively stable and enduring and would thereby function as templates for organizing the person's functioning in subsequent (adult) intimate relationships. From the mid-1980s to the present, researchers have been developing both categorical and continuous selfreport measures of adult attachment styles and orientations. Although the psychometric limitations of categorical measures of the attachment constru...

The authors investigated the temporal relationship between client and therapist attachment orientations and early working alliance. Attachment was measured by self-report after the 1st session of therapy. The working alliance ratings were completed after the 1st, 4th, and 7th therapy sessions. Hierarchical linear modeling results indicated that anxiously attached therapists had a significant positive effect on the client working alliances after the 1st session but significant negative effects over time. No other therapist or client attachment variables or related interactions had a significant effect on client working alliance ratings. Results also indicated that time was a significant positive predictor of client working alliance ratings.

A model for predicting college student distress that included measures of negative life event impacts, adult attachment orientations, and several indexes of self-organization was tested. Results demonstrated that, controlling for age and negative life impacts, attachment anxiety along with 2 self-organizing predictors (self-splitting, self-concealment) each made unique contributions and collectively explained nearly half of the variance in student distress. In addition, self-splitting and self-concealment effectively mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and distress. Implications for the counseling of distressed college students are discussed.

Adult attachment theory and research specifically related to men's and women's intimate partner violence (IPV) are reviewed. In an effort to help explain gender similarities, two different IPV patterns predicted by individual differences in adult attachment orientations are proposed. Gender differences are addressed, including by critiquing the assessment of outcome severity in previous research. Applications to practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.KEY WORDS: adult attachment; romantic relationships; intimate partner violence; domestic violence; psychological abuse; gender differences.Recent meta-analytic studies (Archer, 2000(Archer, , 2002 showed that men and women perpetrated equal amounts of intimate partner violence (IPV). This phenomenon, called gender symmetry in IPV, has stimulated much discussion. This paper offers an explanation for similarities found in men's and women's IPV by applying adult attachment theory. Further, since men's IPV more often caused injury to victims than women's IPV (Archer, 2000), clarifications of gender differences in outcome severity are needed.Prior to findings of gender symmetry in IPV, men were viewed as more likely to be abusive to romantic partners than women (see Dasgupta, 2002;Saunders, 2002). The question that was seldom asked was "Why do some men abuse their romantic partners and others do not?" Individual differences in approaches to intimate relationships may explain not only why some men are more likely than others to abuse their romantic partners, but also why some women abuse their romantic partners (see White & Kowalski, 1994). Feminist scholars advocate integrating an individual difference approach with a gender analysis to explicate gender similarities and A theory-driven model of IPV can offer new directions for research and practice. This paper reviews adult attachment theory and research related to men's and women's IPV. In an effort to help explain gender similarities, two different IPV patterns predicted by individual differences in adult attachment orientations are proposed. Gender differences are addressed, including by critiquing the assessment of outcome severity in previous research. Applications to practice and recommendations for future research are discussed. SEVERITY OF IPV OUTCOMESThe standard approach to studying IPV has the potential to obscure gender differences in outcome 785

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The authors examined the associations between client attachment orientations, working alliance, and progress in therapy. Ninety-five clients at two university-based training clinics completed measures of adult attachment, attachment to therapist, and working alliance immediately preceding the third counseling session with therapists-in-training. A standardized measure of progress in therapy was administered at intake, third counseling session, and termination. Hierarchical linear modeling findings indicated that stronger working alliances and secure attachment to therapist were significantly associated with greater reductions in client distress over time. Higher levels of adult attachment anxiety were significantly associated with greater distress ratings at the outset of treatment. Directions for future research and suggestions for developing therapeutic relationships in the context of specific client attachment orientations are discussed.

This study applied adult attachment theory to better understand self-directed aggression, defined as suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury, reported by 109 hospitalized psychiatric patients. As expected, patients with higher levels of adult attachment anxiety were more likely to report suicide attempts and self-injury. We tested depressive symptoms and anger as mediators of the relationship between attachment orientations and self-directed aggression. As hypothesized, depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and self-directed aggression, but unexpectedly, anger did not. The results support that levels of depression partially explain the associations between attachment anxiety and self-directed aggression. Subsidiary analyses suggested that patients with higher levels of adult attachment avoidance were more likely to report histories of nonsuicidal selfinjury but not suicide attempts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.