Airport separations: A naturalistic study of adult attachment dynamics in separating couples.

Abstract

Couple members separating and not separating from each other in a public airport completed a questionnaire designed to assess relationship length, attachment style, and degree of subjective distress. After they completed these measures, their attachment behavior was observed unobtrusively. Analyses suggested that adult attachment behavior is organized in a manner similar to that observed in children. Relationship length and separation status were associated with the expression of attachment behavior in adults. Analyses also indicated that women with Anxious working models were more likely to experience distress prior to a separation. But the behavioral strategies exhibited by women varied as a function of Avoidant, not Anxious, working models. Results for men were less clear. Implications for adult attachment theory and research are discussed. Throughout the history of attachment research, naturalistic studies have been regarded as an important source of information about the dynamics of attachment relationships (Colin, 1996). When John Bowlby (1969/1982) originally formulated his theory of infant- caregiver attachment, he relied heavily on naturalistic studies of infants who had been separated from their mothers (Bowlby, Robertson, & Rosenbluth, 1952; Heinicke & Westheimer, 1965; Robertson & Robertson, 1971). Similarly, his colleague Mary Ainsworth devoted considerable effort to studying child-caregiver interactions in their natural context. In her early research, she collected observational and ethnographic data on infant-mother dyads in Uganda (Ainsworth, 1967). Later, in Baltimore, she and her colleagues conducted one of the most extensive home observational studies to date on infant-mother interactions (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). These and other observational studies (Anderson, 1972; Carr, Dabbs, & Carr, 1975; Grossmann, Grossmann, Spangler, Suess, & Unzner, 1985; Marvin, VanDevender, Iwanaga, LeVine, & LeVine, 1977) are valuable because they provide important insights into the nature and function of attachment behavior and the dynamics of affectional relationships. In the last decade, an increasing number of researchers have applied attachment theory to adult romantic relationships (see Feeney & Noller, 1996, for a review). However, unlike research on infant-caregi ver attachment, very little of the romantic attachment research has been based on observations of couples

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