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Attachment style
Author(s) -
Levy Kenneth N.,
Ellison William D.,
Scott Lori N.,
Bernecker Samantha L.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20756
Subject(s) - psychology , attachment theory , anxiety , outcome (game theory) , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , developmental psychology , psychiatry , mathematics , mathematical economics
Attachment theory, developed by Bowlby to explain human bonding, has profound implications for conducting and adapting psychotherapy. We summarize the prevailing definitions and measures of attachment style. We review the results of three meta‐analyses examining the association between attachment anxiety, avoidance, and security and psychotherapy outcome. Fourteen studies were synthesized, which included 19 separate therapy cohorts with a combined sample size of 1,467. Attachment anxiety showed a d of −.46 with posttherapy outcome, while attachment security showed a d of.37 association with outcome. Attachment avoidance was uncorrelated with outcome. The age and gender composition of the samples moderated the relation between attachment security and outcome: samples with a higher proportion of female clients and a higher mean age showed a smaller relation between security and outcome. We discuss the practice implications of these findings and related research on the link between attachment and the therapy relationship. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 67:193–203, 2011.