Attachment Insecurity and Abuse in Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Attachment Insecurity and Abuse in Adolescent Romantic Relationships Erin Miga, Joseph P. Allen & Nell Manning University of Virginia This study was made possible by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator (Grant# R 01 -MH 58066) Abstract This study examines the association between attachment insecurity and physical and psychological maltreatment in adolescent romantic relationships. Data were collected from 98 adolescents at age 14, and again at adolescent mean age of 18. Higher levels of adolescent attachment preoccupation was associated with perpetration of psychological abuse against their partners. Higher levels of adolescent dismissing attachment was associated with being the target of psychological abuse from their partners. The dyadic interaction of adolescents scoring lower on romantic attachment avoidance and partners scoring higher on romantic attachment anxiety predicted higher levels of teens’ physical abuse towards their partners. Introduction Background • Intimate partner violence is a relatively common phenomenon among adolescent couples: found in 10 -25% of couples in large-scale studies. This trend is of particular concern because: • Romantic relationships play a crucial role in adolescent development (Furman, 2002). • Aggression in adolescent intimate relationships can set the stage for volatile marital and parent-child relationships in the future. Attachment Theory • “Intimacy anger”: violence that men exhibit in an effort to maintain proximity to their partner when they perceive their romantic attachment relationship to be threatened (Dutton, Saunders, Starzomski, & Bartholomew, 1994). Insecure-preoccupied attachment: • Preoccupied individuals may exhibit vacillations between intensely positive and negation emotions; excessive dependence on attachment relationships Insecure-dismissing attachment: • Dismissing individuals may withdraw during periods of intense emotion; minimize importance of intimacy, emotional experiences, and communication in relationships Adolescent partner violence as a dyadic process: • Females and males exhibit comparable rates of aggressive behaviors, albeit differing in intensity (Archer, 2000), yet most studies place an exclusive focus on males as sole perpetrators of partner aggression. Method Participants v. Data were collected from a larger multi-method, multi-reporter, longitudinal study of adolescent development in the context of peer and family relationships v 98 target adolescents (41 male, 57 female) were first interviewed at age 14. 3 v Target teens: 56% European American and 44% minority or mixed ethnic group v. Adolescents were then re-interviewed at age 18. 3 with their romantic partners v. Couples had been dating for an average of 15 months Procedures Wave 1: Adolescents interviewed at approximately 14 years of age. Wave 2: Adolescents and their romantic partners re-interviewed at approximately 18 years of age. Measures Adult Attachment Interview and Q-set (AAI, George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996; Q-sort, Kobak et al, 1993). Participants were asked to explain their childhood relationships with each of their parents and to recall examples supporting their depictions. Individuals were assigned adult attachment classifications based on the coherence of their responses. The Attachment Q-sort procedure was used to determine a continuous score of both the preoccupied and dismissing attachment dimensions. 5) Teen romantic avoidance moderated the relationship between partner anxiety and teen physical abuse. Romantic partner anxiety predicted increases in teen physical abuse when teen avoidance was low, while more avoidant teens were unaffected by their partners’ anxious attachment. Conflict in Relationships (Wolfe, Reitzel-Jaffe, Gough, & Wekerle, 1994). Teens and their romantic partners reported on the frequency of their partner’s use of physically abusive, sexually coercive, and emotionally manipulative tactics during conflict in the past year. Multi-Item Measure of Adult Romantic Attachment (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998). This study used the “avoidance” and “anxiety” subscales to assess teen and romantic partner’s behavioral and emotional attachment styles in romantic relationships. The Psychological Maltreatment Experience Scale (Petretic-Jackson, Betz, & Pitman, 1995). Individuals reported on the frequency of their partners’ use of verbally abusive tactics. Results Hierarchical regression analyses using Full Information Maximum Likelihood revealed that: 1)Teen attachment preoccupation at age 14 predicted partner report of increases in teen verbal abuse at age 18, after controlling for insecure-dismissing attachment ((β=. 41, p<. 01). Hypotheses The current study uses hierarchical regression analyses to explore the following questions: Conclusions • Results provide evidence for preoccupied and dismissing working models of attachment serving as unique risk factors for later perpetration and victimization of psychological abuse in adolescent romantic relationships. • Results highlight the importance of viewing relationship violence as a dyadic process; severity of aggressive behavior may vary as a function of each partner’s romantic attachment style. • Lack of gender differences found for perpetration of partner violence supports previous findings for comparable rates of aggression across gender. 1. Does preoccupied/anxious attachment serve as a unique risk factor for the perpetration of physical and psychological aggression against one’s partner? • Exhibiting avoidant strategies in the face of conflict may be a protective factor against exhibiting physical violence towards one’s partner. 2. Does dismissing/avoidant attachment predict one’s risk for being victimized by intimate partner violence? 3. Does the interaction of differing insecure romantic attachment styles predict more severe forms of partner aggression among adolescent couples? 3) Teen romantic avoidance predicted increases in romantic partner criticism of the teen (β=. 39, p<. 0001)( see Table 2). 4) Partner anxiety predicted teen report of increases in partner physical abuse and blame during conflict(β=. 26, p<. 05). References 2) Teen dismissing attachment at age 14 predicted increases in romantic partner use of verbal abuse against the teen at age 18 (β=. 28 , p <. 05). Archer, J. (2000). Sex differences in aggression between heterosexual partners: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 126(5), 651. Brennan, K. A. , Clark, C. L. , Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment. In Simpson, J. A. & Rholes, W. (Eds. ), Attachment Theory and Close Relationships, (46 -76). New York: Guilford Press. Dutton, D. G. , Saunders, K. , Starzomski, A. , & Bartholomew, K. (1994). Intimacy-anger and insecure attachment as precursors of abuse in intimate relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24(15), 1367 -1386. Furman, W. (2002). The emerging field of adolescent romantic relationships. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(5), 177. George, C. , Kaplan, N. , & Main, M. (1996). Adult attachment interview. Unpublished interview, University of California, Berkeley. Kobak, R. (1989). The attachment interview q-set. Unpublished document, University of Virginia. Petretic-Jackson, P. , Betz, W. , & Pitman, L. The Psychological Maltreatment Experience Scale (PMES): Assessing psychological maltreatment in childhood and adolescence. In Vandecreek, L. & Knapp, S. (Eds), Innovations in clinical practice: A source book (331 -443). Florida: Professional Resource Press/ Professional Resource Exchange, Inc. Wolfe, D. A. , Reitzel-Jaffe, D. , Gough, R. , & Wekerle, C. (1994). Conflicts in relationships: Measuring physical and sexual coercion among youth. Unpublished manuscript, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.