“Digging in” or “Giving in”: Attachment‐related threat moderates the association between attachment orientation and reactions to conflict

Abstract

Prior research suggests that individuals higher in attachment anxiety react to conflict in a more hostile manner than those lower in attachment anxiety. Although less pronounced, there is also evidence that attachment anxiety is associated with submissive behavior in conflict. Thus, the literature presents a paradox, as attachment anxiety is associated with both domineering and submissive responses to relationship conflict. We proposed that attachment‐related threat moderates the effects of attachment orientations on conflict behavior, such that under conditions of low threat attachment anxiety would be associated with dominance, whereas under conditions of high threat attachment anxiety would be associated with submission. Further, we expected that this interaction between attachment anxiety and threat condition would be stronger for individuals lower in attachment avoidance, relative to those higher in avoidance. We found support for our hypotheses, such that attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and threat interacted to predict responses to relationship conflict.

Being in the Moment So You Can Keep Moving Forward: Mindfulness and Rumination Mediate the Relationship between Attachment Orientations and Negative Conflict Styles

“…Attachment insecurity was also related to decreased relationship satisfaction and all six conflict styles (less compromise, and more interactional reactivity, avoidance, separation, domination, and submission). This replicates past patterns of attachment insecurity predicting more negative conflict behaviors [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Mindfulness and rumination together mediated the relationship between attachment insecurity and conflict styles for most of these models.…”

“…A large literature base supports the association between being high on either dimension of attachment and negative individual (e.g., references [ 6 , 8 , 11 , 12 ]) and interpersonal outcomes (e.g., references [ 6 , 8 , 13 ]). Specifically, attachment insecurity has been related to less constructive conflict management styles [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ] and reduced satisfaction in relationships (see Reference [ 18 ] for a meta-analysis).…”

“…This scale is a self-report examining six of the most common behaviors exhibited during conflict: compromise, avoidance, interactional reactivity (i.e., high emotionality and expressiveness), separation, domination, and submission. Attachment anxiety and avoidance have been related to many negative conflict behaviors [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], and thus we hypothesized negative associations with compromise, and positive associations with avoidance, interactional reactivity, separation, and ironically, both domination and submission (see Reference [ 16 ] for an explanation of the link to both domination and submission).…”

Adult Attachment, Conflict Resolution Style and Relationship Quality among Spanish Young-adult Couples

“…(Collins et al, 2002). In fact, a growing body of studies has found anxiety and avoidance dimensions (e.g., da Costa & Mosmann, 2020;MacDonald et al, 2019;Paquette et al, 2020;Rholes et al, 2014;Ricco & Sierra, 2017) -or insecure styles such as preoccupied, dismissing, or fearful (Creasey, 2002;Pistole & Arricale, 2003)-to be positively associated with skill deficits in conflict management and negatively related to positive problem-solving strategies. Apparently, avoidance is more strongly associated with withdrawal from conflict and anxiety is more highly related to conflict engagement (Pistole & Arricale, 2003;Rholes et al, 2014;Shi, 2003).…”

“…Furthermore, this evidence is generally obtained from small-size samples of individuals (e.g., Bonache et al, 2019;Du Plessis, 2006;MacDonald et al, 2019;Pistole & Arricale, 2003) or couples (e.g., Bretz, 2009;Creasey, 2002;Guzmán & Contreras, 2012) -in the latter case, samples rarely exceed several hundred-, and participants are often of a wide age range (e.g., da Costa & Mosmann, 2020;Heresi et al, 2014;Paquette et al, 2020;Quickert & MacDonald, 2020;Scheeren et al, 2014), which hinders the extrapolation of results to emerging adults.…”