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.

KEYWORDS:

• aggression
• attachment
• dyadic
• couples
• intimate
• partner
• violence