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Attachment, sexual experience, and sexual pressure in romantic relationships: A dyadic approach
Author(s) -
BRASSARD AUDREY,
SHAVER PHILLIP R.,
LUSSIER YVAN
Publication year - 2007
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/j.1475-6811.2007.00166.x
Subject(s) - psychology , sexual coercion , romance , attachment theory , developmental psychology , anxiety , sexual behavior , social psychology , sexual intercourse , limiting , clinical psychology , poison control , injury prevention , population , demography , medicine , mechanical engineering , environmental health , psychiatry , sociology , psychoanalysis , engineering
The goal of this research was to extend the previously documented associations between attachment style and sexual experiences in samples of adolescents and college students to adult couples in committed romantic relationships. A sample of 273 French‐Canadian heterosexual couples aged 18–35 years completed measures of attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance, sexual coercion, and sexual experiences in their relationships. Avoidant attachment was related to two strategies for limiting intimacy in sexual relationships: avoidance of sexual encounters and avoidance of sexual fantasies about one’s partner (the latter for women only). Anxious attachment appeared to interfere with comfortable intimacy, especially among men, who viewed their partner as avoiding sex and who applied more insistent pressure to have sex.