The Link Between Insecure Attachment and Depression: Two Potential Pathways

A wealth of research demonstrates a strong link between insecure attachment and depressive symptoms. However, thus far no work has discerned different pathways to depression for each of the insecure subtypes: anxious and avoidant attachment. This work looks at the behaviors that couples engage in during a conflict interaction as a potential mediator for the attachment-depression relationship, with different behaviors mediating the link between anxious and avoidant attachment and depression. For anxiously attached individuals, it was predicted that lack of support and response from the partner (actual or perceived) would account for the relationship between their attachment and depressive symptoms. While for avoidant individuals, it was predicted that partners’ hostile behaviors would account for a positive association between attachment and depression, but humor and relationship-enhancing behaviors would account for a negative association between attachment and depression. Results from this work indicated that for anxiously attached women, their perceptions of their partners’ responsiveness and their partners’ actual hostility mediated the link between their attachment and depressive symptoms

Correspondence Between Change in Adult Attachment Patterns and Change in Depression Symptoms in Early Marriage

Countless studies have demonstrated the association between attachment styles and depressive symptoms; however, thus far, none have examined concurrent change. That is, does change in attachment style predict change in depressive symptoms over time? This question was examined in a sample of 229 heterosexual newlywed couples from Western Massachusetts. It was found that changes in attachment avoidance in particular predicted changes in depressive and anxious symptoms over time. Being a parent also played a role in participants\u27 overall attachment styles, depressive symptoms and anxious symptoms on average, with differences observed by gender. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed

Dysfunctional Attitudes and Low Self-Esteem Mediate the Effect of Attachment Anxiety Priming on Depression

Previous studies regarding the relationship between attachment anxiety and depression and the mediating roles of dysfunctional attitudes and self-esteem have been correlational in nature. The current study used an experimental design to look at these relationships. Attachment style was determined using a shortened version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, and then either secure attachment, anxious attachment, or a control of grocery shopping was primed by instructing participants to write about one of the three scenarios. Dysfunctional attitudes were assessed, followed by state self-esteem and then state depression. Multiple regression analyses revealed that trait attachment anxiety and the anxiety prime predict dysfunctional attitudes, which in turn predict state-self esteem. Finally, state-self esteem predicted state depression and rendered previously significant associations between attachment anxiety, avoidance, anxiety priming, dysfunctional attitudes and depression insignificant when included in the analysis