Pathways to generalized and partner-specific attachment representations in adulthood: A developmental perspective on the organization of romantic behavior.

Abstract

This study tested a model of developmental processes by which generalized and romantic-partner specific attachment representations emerge was tested, and tested the joint contribution of both representations to concurrent romantic functioning. Participants (N = 112) in a 32-year longitudinal study of risk and adaptation were grouped based on the security of their generalized and partner-specific attachment representations (Sec/Sec, Ins/Ins, Ins/Sec, and Sec/Ins). The four groups were compared on antecedent measures of infant attachment, parenting quality at 24 months, 54-month ego resilience, middle childhood peer competence, adolescent friendship quality, adjustment prior to the romantic partnership, and concurrent observed and self-reported romantic functioning in early adulthood. Results indicated that both early and later experience shaped developmental pathways to configurations of adult attachment representations. The InsAAI/SecCRI group differed from their concordant-insecure counterparts on measures of both earlier and concurrent relationship functioning. SecAAI/InsCRI individuals functioned similarly to SecAAI/SecCRI individuals in their romantic partnerships, but differed on earlier individual functioning. Results provided evidence that attachment functioning in adulthood is multiply and probabilistically determined by both earlier and later experiences. Implications for process approaches to the study of developmental organization of romantic behavior are discussed.