Romantic attachment, stress, and cognitive functioning in a large sample of middle-aged and older couples

This study examined the link between insecure attachment and cognitive functioning in 1,043 middle-aged older romantic couples (Mage = 64.7 years), tests whether stress acts as a mediator. Participants were asked about their (anxiety avoidance), impairment, partner’s dementia symptoms, tested on memory performance. Findings suggest that anxiously attached individuals experience more report worse functioning, while partners of avoidantly stress, show Post-hoc robustness analyses relationship satisfaction accounts for avoidance serves Insecure reflects potential risk health couples.