Dyadic adult attachment style and aggression within romantic relationships
Abstract
The current study examined the relationship between dyadic adult attachment and aggressive behaviors within romantic relationships using a sample of 696 couples. Individual attachment styles were paired to form dyadic attachment categorization. Differential inferential statistics were used to determine differences between attachment dyads regarding aggressive behaviors. Relationships consisting of one insecurely attached partner had higher levels of aggression than secure/secure dyads, while insecure/insecure dyads had the highest levels of aggressive behaviors among all groups. These findings provide insight into the dynamics of partner violence and emphasize the need for therapists to attend to attachment styles in relationship aggression risk assessment.
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The dismissing-anxious pattern seems to be the most common configuration in couples with one-sided IPV.
“The dismissing-anxious pattern seems to be the most common configuration in couples with one-sided IPV (Bookwala, 2002; Frey et al., 2011; Wilson et al., 2013).”
From Exploring Relationships: A Systematic Review on Intimate Partner Violence and Attachment (2018) · cites this paper as Wilson et al., 2013
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Exploring Relationships: A Systematic Review on Intimate Partner Violence and Attachment
Velotti, P., Beomonte Zobel, S., Rogier, G., & Tambelli, R. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01166 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wilson, J. B., Gardner, B. C., Brosi, M. W., Topham, G. L., & Busby, D. M.
- Affiliations
- East Carolina University (US)
- Oklahoma State University (US)
- Brigham Young University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 186-205
- ISSN
- 1533-2683 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-2691
- OpenAlex
- W2045280302
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 2.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy (publishedVersion)
- ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Health › Intimate Partner and Family Violence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- adult attachment styles, dyadic attachment, romantic relationships, intimate partner violence, insecure attachment, secure attachment, aggression risk assessment
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