Attachment hierarchy in Japan: examining the validity of important people interview in Japanese young adults

ABSTRACT

To assess young people’s attachment hierarchy, the Important People Interview (IPI) was developed based on Bowlby’s conceptualization of ethological behavioral systems. The present study examined the validity of the IPI in a sample of Japanese young adults (N = 472; M_age = 20.34, SD = 1.28; females = 53.81%), because Bowlby’s behavioral systems conceptualization has been assumed to be universal. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed agood fit of the IPI model with a Japanese sample. The ranking of the mother in attachment hierarchy correlated positively with young adults’ self-esteem, and the ranking of the father correlated negatively with their depressive symptoms. The absence of romantic partner; shorter romantic relationships; living separately with mother, father, and romantic partner; and less frequent meetings with the mother, father, and romantic partner correlated with the higher ranking of friends. When other attachment figures are unavailable, people may flexibly use friends to meet their attachment needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment hierarchy
• behavioral systems
• important people interview
• Japanese culture
• friendship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Based on findings from previous studies (Fraley & Davis, 1997; Hazan & Zeifman, 1994), we have also conducted an ordinal regression analysis to examine whether Japanese youth who were in a romantic relationship longer than or equal to 24 months (n = 26) would be more likely to prefer their romantic partner compared to Japanese youth who were in a romantic relationship shorter than 24 months (n = 136). The result was not statistically significant, b = .30 (SE = .40), p = .454.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this study. Portions of this research were conducted for the second author’s bachelor’s thesis.