Attachment style and romantic love: Relationship dissolution

Abstract

The present research was designed to assess attachment style differences in subjects' reports of the dissolution of romantic relationships. One hundred and ninety-three unmarried undergraduates completed questionnaire measures of relationship history, including relationship dissolution and attachment style (both the forced-choice measure used by Hazan & Shaver, 1987; and a Likert-type version derived from that measure). Subjects were also followed up 10 weeks later in order to assess the stability of attachment style and its relation to the formation and dissolution of relationships. As expected, the three attachment styles differed strongly in their affective responses to dissolution. Measures of attachment style and mental models were also related to the occurrence of relationship termination; in particular, subjects endorsing the avoidant attachment style were the most likely to experience relationship break-up. Change in self-reported attachment style was associated with the formation of a steady relationship during the course of the study, but not with the experience of relationship break-up.