Abstract
Attachment has previously been linked to people’s health. However, less is known about how romantic attachment in currently partnered and single people predicts their health. The present study examines the association between romantic attachment and health outcomes at different timescales (i.e., cross-sectional and across 2 years) while considering individuals’ relationship status (i.e., partnered and single). The concurrent results based on 516 partnered individuals suggest that more anxious partnered individuals experience lower health satisfaction while more avoidant partnered individuals place less importance to their health. Our results suggest no long-term prediction of partnered individuals’ romantic attachment on their health satisfaction and health goal importance. For the results based on a sample of 173 singles, the picture was painted differently regarding the role of romantic attachment in their health: Avoidance was concurrently negatively linked to health satisfaction and health goal importance; yet, longitudinally, it emerged as a positive predictor for health satisfaction and health goal importance.
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Notes
Missing data occurred because some participants did not fill out all survey questions. However, to maximize the number of participants that could be included in at least some analyses, we included participants that reported at least one health outcome and, consequently, could be included in at least one set of analyses that predicted a specific health outcome.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Sabrina Brunner for her research assistance and Robert P. Burriss and William J. Chopik for their helpful comments in writing and revising the manuscript. We also thank Mark Brandt for sharing code on multiple imputation.
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This publication is based on data from the Co-Development in Personality: Longitudinal Approaches to Personality Development in Dyads across the Life Span and Co-Development in Personality II: Longitudinal Approaches to Personality Development in Close Inter- and Intragenerational Relationships Across the Life Span projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (CRSI11_130432/1 and CRSII1_147614/1). This research was supported by the fellowship P400PS_186724 (grantee: Rebekka Weidmann) from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
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Weidmann, R., Wünsche, J. & Grob, A. Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations Between Romantic Attachment, Health Satisfaction, and Health Goal Importance in Partnered and Single Individuals. J Adult Dev 31, 99–116 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-023-09451-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-023-09451-w