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Insecure Attachment, Gender Roles, and Interpersonal Dependency in the Basque Country
Author(s) -
Alonso–Arbiol Itziar,
Shaver Phillip R.,
Yárnoz Sagrario
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6811.00030
Subject(s) - dependency (uml) , psychology , femininity , interpersonal communication , attachment theory , developmental psychology , masculinity , insecure attachment , gender role , interpersonal relationship , social psychology , systems engineering , psychoanalysis , engineering
Gender, gender role, and attachment style were used to predict emotional and instrumental dependency in a Basque student sample (N = 602). Psychometrically sound Spanish adaptations of English–language measures of dependency and attachment were created. As predicted, women were more emotionally and instrumentally dependent than men, but the sex differences were mediated by psychological masculinity and femininity. The anxious attachment dimension was correlated with emotional and instrumental dependency, the preoccupied rating with emotional dependency, and the avoidant attachment dimension and fearful rating with instrumental dependency. When the two attachment dimensions and the two gender–role variables were combined to predict dependency, emotional dependency was a function of anxious attachment and femininity; instrumental dependency was a function of anxious and avoidant attachment and low masculinity. Limitations and future directions are discussed.