- Title
- Adult self-report attachment style and anxiety: a quantitative review and meta-analysis
- Creator
- Watson, Karen
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Masters Coursework - Master of Clinical Psychology (MClinPsych)
- Description
- Anxiety is a major mental health problem in both clinical and non-clinical populations across the world. Attachment theory has been frequently linked to anxiety. Attachment theory has evolved from the early work by Bowlby and Ainsworth, who proposed the existence of an attachment system which allowed infants to experience their parents as a safe base from which to explore the world. Contemporary attachment models have been applied to adults and their relationships with romantic partners. Adult attachment theory has been advanced as a useful approach to understanding anxiety. Given the prevalence of adults effected by anxiety, the development of an empirical evidence base to inform our understanding of the role of attachment in the aetiology of anxiety is essential. The purpose of this research was to conduct a quantitative review and meta-analysis to synthesise the current information regarding the link between adult attachment and anxiety, and hence establish a sound evidence base. The focus of this meta-analysis was on self-report adult attachment and self-report anxiety in clinical and non-clinical populations. In addition to overall effect sizes, this research aimed to consider potential moderators of this relationship. A literature search was conducted on nine relevant databases, with 9,401 articles identified as potentially relevant. A screening process reduced this number to 48 articles, contributing 62 final studies to be used in the meta-analysis. Eligibility criteria required the studies to be published in English language, peer review journals between 1980 and 2016. Participants were required to be 18 years old and over, and measurement scales were to be self-report. The software package “Comprehensive Meta-Analysis” was used for the statistical analysis and Pearson’s r values were used as effect sizes. A random-effects model was employed to determine an overall effect size due to the expected variation between studies. Subgroup analysis was used to assess moderator variable such as gender, English language scales, attachment scales, clinical or non-clinical populations and student or non-student populations. The findings of the meta-analysis indicated that the relationship between both anxious and avoidant attachment, and anxiety in a heterogeneous set of studies represented positive correlations with medium effect sizes (Anxious attachment: .35; Avoidant attachment: .25). The findings indicated that secure attachment is negatively related to anxiety symptoms with a smaller effect size (Secure attachment: -.18). No significant differences were found between gender, or based on the use of English or translated scales. The relationship between avoidant attachment and anxiety was shown to be significantly weaker in students than in non-students. However, the relationship between anxious attachment and anxiety demonstrated no significant difference across student and non-student populations. Finally, there appeared to be minimal differences between findings related to anxious or avoidant attachment based on which adult attachment measure was utilized. Subgroup analysis was not able to be conducted on the relationship between secure attachment and anxiety due to the low number of studies identified that reported secure attachment values. Overall, the findings of this meta-analysis demonstrated a significant association between adult attachment and general symptoms of anxiety in clinical and non-clinical populations. Anxious attachment was most strongly associated with symptoms of anxiety, followed by avoidant and then secure, with secure being negatively related and the insecure styles being positively related. Additionally, no significant differences were found between gender, or clinical and non-clinical samples. However, this analysis was limited by some small subgroup numbers. In the case of gender, this limitation could be addressed for future research by the reporting of effect sizes by gender. No significant difference was found between studies that used English language scales and studies that used translated scales. One challenge for future research is to find more comprehensive ways of addressing cultural diversity in a mobile global population. The relationship between insecure attachment and anxiety was shown to be significantly weaker in students than in non-students, but only for avoidant attachment. This finding may be related to the interaction between avoidant attachment traits and the university environment, however further investigation is recommended. Finally, there appeared to be minimal differences between findings related to anxious or avoidant attachment based on which adult attachment measure was utilized. Given the debate regarding which scale is considered superior, this finding is salient, as it raises the possibility that some of the current scales are interchangeable. Some questions were raised in relation to the impact of various measures on findings related to secure attachment. Given this finding and the low number of studies reporting secure attachment, it is recommended that the measurement and reporting of secure attachment be further considered for future investigation.
- Subject
- adult attachment; anxiety; self-report
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1387881
- Identifier
- uon:32686
- Rights
- Copyright 2017 Karen Watson
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 419 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |