BACKGROUND Recent research has documented the association between attachment and cortisol rhythms. During pregnancy, when attachment patterns are likely to be activated, elevated levels of cortisol are associated with negative effects for the mother and the foetus. The aim of the present study was to examine the association of adult attachment style and cortisol rhythms in pregnant women. MET...

BACKGROUND Attachment insecurity relates to the onset and course of chronic pain via dysfunctional reactions to pain. However, few studies have investigated the proportion of insecure attachment styles in different pain conditions, and results regarding associations between attachment, pain severity, and disability in chronic pain are inconsistent. This study aims to clarify the relationships b...

Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span-encompassing theoretical model to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from these stu...

The relation of attachment states of mind and self reported attachment relationship styles to romantic partner aggression was examined in a community sample of 93 adolescents. Higher levels of insecure-preoccupied and insecure-dismissing states of mind, as assessed by the Adolescent Attachment Interview at age 14, were predictive, respectively, of perpetration and victimization of psychological...

This study tested whether working models of attachment guide how people construe and respond to social interactions by examining immediate responses to a range of everyday interactions and to specific attachment-relevant interactions. Patterns for immediate reports were compared with those for more memory-based, global reports. Secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing participants provided ...

The present research evaluated a conceptual model that links preoccupied attachment to dysthymic disorder in women. From an original community sample of 420 women, 129 women were identified with depressive symptomatology as assessed by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D). Twenty-four of these 129 women were diagnosed as dysthymic disordered according to the Structure...

This study investigated theoretically predicted links between attachment style and a physiological indicator of stress, salivary cortisol levels, in 124 heterosexual dating couples. Cortisol was assessed at 7 points before and after an experimental conflict negotiation task, creating a trajectory of stress reactivity and recovery for each participant. Growth modeling of cortisol data tested hyp...