Predicting Young Adults’ Romantic Relationship Quality: Sibling Ties and Adult Attachment Styles

Abstract

Young adults’ romantic relationships have continually emerged as a significant area of study in psychological research. The authors examine possible associations between a measure of attitudes toward sibling relationships, a measure of adult attachment styles, and a measure of romantic relationship quality in a sample of 350 Italian university students (68.6% females, 31.4% males; age range 19-30 years, M age = 23.6 years, SD = 3.2). The authors tested the following hypotheses: that the perceived relationship quality between siblings was positively correlated with adult attachment styles and romantic relationship quality, that the frequent use of behaviors associated with adult attachment styles was negatively correlated with romantic relationship quality, and that attitudes toward sibling relationships and adult attachment styles predicted romantic relationship quality. Findings only partly supported the hypotheses, indicating that more positive attitudes toward sibling relationships and lower use of behaviors associated with avoidant attachment style influenced and predicted higher romantic relationship quality.