Adult Attachment and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Longitudinal Analysis and the Role of Coping Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Attachment orientations reflect individuals’ expectations for interpersonal relationships and influence emotion regulation strategies and coping. A great deal of research has been conducted on the relationship between adult attachment and traumatic stress. Much of the previous research has documented that anxious and avoidant attachment orientations have deleterious effects on the trauma recovery process, such that anxious and avoidant attachment may leave survivors vulnerable to PTSD symptoms. However, prior work as found those high in avoidant attachment and low in anxious attachment (e.g., dismissing) may not experience such vulnerabilities. Further, anxious and avoidant attachment orientations appear to differ in terms of self-efficacy appraisals, which represent a key aspect of self-regulation. Trauma coping self-efficacy (CSE-T) was examined as a previously unexamined mechanism of action between adult attachment and PTSD symptoms in a theoretically based structural equation model. Anxious attachment was associated with lower CSE-T and greater PTSD symptoms six weeks later. Further, a significant indirect effect of anxious attachment on PTSD symptoms via CSE-T was found. Contrary to hypotheses, avoidant attachment also exhibited an indirect effect on PTSD symptoms through CSE-T, such that avoidant attachment was associated with lower CSE-T, which in turn, was associated with greater PTSD symptoms. Also contrary to hypotheses, the interaction between anxious and avoidant attachment was not significantly associated with either CSE-T or PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that both anxious and avoidant attachment orientations contribute to poor self-regulation following trauma, as they undermine perceptions of ones’ self as capable to cope with trauma recovery.