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. 2024 Aug 27;14(9):758.
doi: 10.3390/bs14090758.

Adult Attachment and Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Romantic Relationships

Farnaz Mosannenzadeh  1 , Maartje Luijten  1 , Dominique F MacIejewski  2 , Grace V Wiewel  1 , Johan C Karremans  1
Affiliations

Adult Attachment and Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Romantic Relationships

Farnaz Mosannenzadeh et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Adults with attachment insecurity often struggle in romantic relationships due to difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). One potentially influential yet understudied factor is the inflexible over-reliance on either intrapersonal (self-directed, e.g., suppression) or interpersonal (involving others, e.g., sharing) ER. This study investigates the association between attachment insecurity and flexibility in using interpersonal versus intrapersonal ER in response to daily stressors in romantic relationships. We hypothesized that higher attachment avoidance and anxiety are associated with (H1) higher reliance on either intrapersonal or interpersonal ER over the other, respectively; (H2) less variable use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER over time; and (H3) less flexible use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER depending on the availability of a romantic partner. Study 1 (N = 174; 133 females, Mage = 23.79, SDage = 7.63) used an online cross-sectional survey to measure average inter/intrapersonal ER, addressing H1. Study 2 (N = 124; 104 females, Mage = 22.45, SDage = 6.39), combined a baseline survey with experience sampling (7 days, 8 notifications/day), addressing H1, H2, and H3. Results showed that higher attachment avoidance was associated with lower interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER. Higher attachment anxiety was associated with less variable use of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal ER and less flexible use of interpersonal ER depending on partner availability. These findings suggest distinct associations between attachment orientations and ER flexibility, explaining ER difficulties in individuals with high attachment insecurity.

Keywords: ESM; adult attachment; emotion regulation; flexibility; romantic relationships.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research hypotheses of Study 1 and Study 2. Note. Study 1 investigated H1.1 and H1.2 in an online cross-sectional survey. Study 2 investigated all hypotheses in an online survey combined with experience sampling method. Inter-vs-intrapersonal ER is interpersonal ER minus intrapersonal ER at a given period of time. SD is standard deviation. The signs in the circles indicate the direction of the hypothesized effect.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The effect of attachment avoidance on inter-vs-intrapersonal emotion regulation across studies and analyses. Note: the inter-vs-intrapersonal scores closer to 0 indicate more similarity in the use of interpersonal and intrapersonal ER and thus a higher variability. Larger positive or negative scores indicate lower variability.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The interaction between attachment anxiety and avoidance affecting inter-vs-intrapersonal emotion regulation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The interaction between attachment anxiety and partner availability affecting interpersonal emotion regulation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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