Attachment Style in Adjustment to Conjugal Bereavement

Abstract

This study examined the role of attachment style in adjustment to bereavement. Midlife bereaved individuals whose spouse had died in the previous year completed the Reciprocal Attachment Questionnaire (RAQ; West & Sheldon-Keller, 1994) and a measure assessing aspects of appraising and coping with the loss. They also were administered repeated symptom measures at 6, 14, 25, and 60 months post-bereavement. Complete symptom measures data over the course of the 5-year period were available for 32 participants. The RAQ compulsive care-seeking measure of anxious attachment was predictive of appraised inability to cope with the loss and of more severe symptomatology over the course of 5 years. Furthermore, appraised inability to cope with the loss was shown to mediate the relationship between compulsive care-seeking and symptoms. The RAQ compulsive self-reliance measure of avoidant attachment was not related to symptomatology, however. Finally, the RAQ angry withdrawal measure of ambivalent attachment was predictive of 6 and 14 months post-loss symptoms, but not of 25-or 60-month symptoms. The differences in the pattern of findings for compulsive care-seeking and angry withdrawal are discussed in the context of previous findings in the bereavement literature on the role of dependency and ambivalence in bereavement-related adjustment.