The relationship between adult attachment and mental health: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Attachment theory provides a framework for understanding the correlations among interpersonal relationships, stress, and health. Moreover, adult attachment is an important predictor of mental health. However, there is a lack of systematic reviews that simultaneously examine the associations between adult attachment and both positive and negative indicators of mental health. Consequently, we meta-analyzed 224 studies examining the associations between adult attachment and mental health, using robust variance estimation with random effects. The results (k = 245 samples, N = 79,722) showed that higher levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance were positively correlated with negative affect (e.g., depression, anxiety, loneliness) and they were negatively correlated with positive affect (e.g., life satisfaction, self-esteem). More specifically, there were moderate associations between attachment avoidance and negative mental health (r = .28) and positive mental health (r = −.24). Likewise, there were moderate associations between attachment anxiety and negative mental health (r = .42) and positive mental health (r = −.29). Furthermore, the association between the attachment dimensions and mental health outcomes was also moderated by several variables (e.g., gender, age). Finally, these associations remained statistically significant even when the attachment dimensions were mutually controlled using meta-analytic structural equation modeling. Overall, attachment anxiety had larger associations with mental health than did attachment avoidance. Thus, the current results support robust links between adult attachment and mental health. This may have implications for future research and mental health treatments.

Love Addiction, Adult Attachment Patterns and Self-Esteem: Testing for Mediation Using Path Analysis

“…Concerning the relationship between love addiction and adult attachment, our results showed that only fearful and preoccupied styles showed significant and positive associations with love addiction. This is in line with earlier evidence showing how fearful and preoccupied attachments are associated with different forms of addiction; these two styles of attachment seem to be more frequent in subjects with substance dependence, such as with heroin [ 19 ], alcohol, tobacco, or waterpipes [ 53 ], as well as problematic smartphone use [ 54 ] and social media addiction [ 23 , 55 ], and sexual addiction [ 56 ]. The preoccupied attachment is characterized by fear that others are unavailable in times of need, and involves an anxious search for love and support and dependence on a desire for commitment in relationship, while fearful attachment is characterized by distrust of others’ intentions, compulsive self-reliance, and the low intensitiy of fewer love experiences [ 18 , 25 ].…”

Periodontal maintenance: individual patient responses and discontinuations

“…1 ). Attachment anxiety is known to influence general anxiety [ 31 , 32 ] as well as dental-related fear [ 14 ]. While anxiety my not generally be related to non-compliance [ 33 ], an accompanying critical attitude can either be prospectively relevant for discontinuation, or retrospectively used to reduce cognitive dissonance for the decision to terminate SPT.…”

Emotional regulation, attachment style, and assertiveness as determinants of well-being in emerging adults

“…The attachment styles also predict the quality of mental health. For example, Zhang et al (2022) showed that insecure attachment style highly increased the risk of poor mental health. Therefore, this variable seems likely to be a determinant of well-being in emerging adults.…”