Anxiety and Attachment Styles: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Attachment theory argues that the interaction between individuals and their special others (especially infants to their mothers) in childhood affects how the individuals behave in the face of pressure, threat, and separation, which in turn is related to the individual’s mental health. Intimate relationship functioning is associated with various mental health outcomes. Anxiety is an emotion state which is separable yet related to fear. Anxiety is a future-oriented emotion, and fear is an alarm response to present and imminent event. In several studies, specific attachment styles were associated with anxiety disorders. As such, attachment styles may relate to anxiety disorder. The present review aims to analyze the literature on the relationship between adult attachment styles and anxiety in the last three years (2016-2019). It turns out that Secure attachment is negatively associated with anxiety symptoms. By contrast, insecure attachment is positively associated with anxiety symptoms, anxiety disorders, and subtypes of anxiety disorders (correlation coefficient ranged from 0.273 to 0.56, effect size ranged from -0.11 to 0.37). The correlation coefficient of anxious attachment and anxiety ranged from 0.273 to 0.56, of avoidant attachment and anxiety ranged from zero, no correlation, to 0.3, despite different group characteristics of individuals (e.g., different mental diseases, with or without having perceived parenting).