Do one's hierarchical preference for attachment support from a particular person over other people (attachment hierarchy) and his/her discomfort with closeness and uneasiness about being dependent on that particular person (attachment avoidance) inversely overlap? These two constructs have been distinctly conceptualized. Attachment hierarchy has been regarded as a normative characteristic of attachment relationships, while attachment avoidance has been considered to reflect an individual difference of relationship quality. Employing bifactor analyses, we demonstrated a unidimensional general factor of these two concepts in four studies exploring Czech young adults' relationships with mother, father, friends, and romantic partner (Study 1); U.S. young adults' relationships with a romantic partner (Study 2); Czech adolescents' relationships with mother, father, and friends (Study 3); and Japanese young adults' relationships with mother, father, and romantic partner (Study 4). These convergent results provide the replicable and generalizable evidence that one's attachment avoidance toward a particular person and her/his placement of that particular person in the attachment hierarchy are inversely overlapping.

Department of British and American Studies Nanzan University Nagoya Aichi Japan

Department of Communicology University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Honolulu Hawaii United States of America

Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences Hiroshima University Higashi Hiroshima Hiroshima Japan

Institute for Research on Children Youth and Family Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

See more in PubMed

Bowlby J. Attachment and Loss: Vol.1. Attachment. 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books; 1982. (Original work published 1969).

Ainsworth MDS. Attachment beyond infancy. Am Psychol. 1989;44(4):709–716. 10.1037//0003-066x.44.4.709 PubMed DOI

Colin V. Hierarchies and patterns of infants’ attachments to parents and day caregivers: An exploration [dissertation]. Charlottesville: University of Virginia; 1985.

Cummings ME. Caregiver stability and day care. Dev Psychol. 1980;16(1):31–37. 10.1037/0012-1649.16.1.31 DOI

Hazan C, Zeifman D. Sex and the psychological tether In: Bartholomew K, Perlman D, editors. Advances in personal relationships: Vol. 5. Attachment processes in adulthood. London: Jessica Kingsley; 1994. p. 151–178.

Pitman R, Scharfe E. Testing the function of attachment hierarchies during emerging adulthood. Pers Relatsh. 2010;17(2):201–216. 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01272.x DOI

Scharf M, Mayseless O. Putting eggs in more than one basket: A new look at developmental processes of attachment in adolescence. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2007;117:1–22. 10.1002/cd.191 PubMed DOI

Ainsworth MDS, Blehar M, Waters E, Wall S. Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1978.

Brennan KA, Clark CL, Shaver PR. Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview In: Simpson JA, Rholes WS, editors. Attachment theory and close relationships. New York: Guilford Press; 1998. P. 46–76.

Simpson JA, Rholes WS, Nelligan JS. Support seeking and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation: The role of attachment styles. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1992;62(3):434–446. 10.1037/0022-3514.62.3.434 DOI

Feeney JA. Adult romantic attachment: Developments in the study of couple relationships In: Cassidy J, Shaver PR, editors. Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. 3rd ed. New York: Guilford; 2016. p. 435–463.

Fraley RC, Heffernan ME, Vicary AM, Brumbaugh CC. The experiences in close relationships—Relationship Structures Questionnaire: A method for assessing attachment orientations across relationships. Psychol Assess. 2011;23(3):615–625. 10.1037/a0022898 PubMed DOI

Duemmler SL, Kobak R. The development of commitment and attachment in dating relationships: Attachment security as relationship construct." J Adolesc. 2001;(24)3:401–415. 10.1006/jado.2001.0406 PubMed DOI

Umemura T, Lacinová L, Kotrčová K, Fraley RC. Similarities and differences regarding changes in attachment preferences and attachment styles in relation to romantic relationship length: longitudinal and concurrent analyses. Attach Hum Dev. 2018; 20(2): 135–159. 10.1080/14616734.2017.1383488 PubMed DOI

Fagundes CP, Schindler I. Making of romantic attachment bonds: Longitudinal trajectories and implications for relationship stability. Pers Relatsh. 2012;19(4):723–742. 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2011.01389.x DOI

Feeney JA. Transfer of attachment from parents to romantic partners: Effects of individual and relationship variables. J Fam Stud. 2004:10(2);220–238. 10.5172/jfs.327.10.2.220 DOI

Erikson EH. Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton; 1968.

Schwartz SJ, Zamboanga BL, Wang W, Olthuis JV. Measuring identity from an Eriksonian perspective: Two sides of the same coin? J Pers Assess. 2009;91(2):143–154. 10.1080/00223890802634266 PubMed DOI

Umemura T, Lacinová L, Macek P. Is emerging adults’ attachment preference for the romantic partner transferred from their attachment preferences for their mother, father, and friends? Emerg Adulthood. 2015;3(3):179–193.

Imai T, Umemura T, Taniguchi E, Vangelisti AL, Dailey RM. Worrying weights on your partner’s heart: Exploring how ruminating about a romantic relationship is associated with relational uncertainty with dyadic data. Japanese Journal of Communication Studies, 2016;44(2):135–150.

Umemura T, Lacinová L, Kraus J, Horská E, Pivodová L. Adolescents’ multiple versus single primary attachment figures, reorganization of attachment hierarchy, and adjustments: The important people interview approach. Attach Hum Dev. 2018;20(5):532–552. 10.1080/14616734.2018.1464040 PubMed DOI

Umemura T, Fusamune S, Sugimura K. Attachment hierarchy in Japan: Examining the validity of important people interview in Japanese young adults. Under review. PubMed

Brown TA. Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. 2nd Ed. New York: The Guilford Press; 2015.

Muthén LK, Muthén BO. Mplus user’s guide. 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Author; 1998–2020.

Fraley RC, Davis KE. Attachment formation and transfer in young adults’ close friendships and romantic relationships. Pers Relatsh. 1997;4(2):131–144. 10.1111/j.1475-6811.1997.tb00135.x DOI

Rosenthal NL, Kobak R. Assessing adolescents' attachment hierarchies: Differences across developmental periods and associations with individual adaptation. J Res Adolesc. 2010;20(3):678–706. 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00655.x PubMed DOI PMC

Nickerson AB, Nagle RJ. Parent and peer attachment in late childhood and early adolescence. J Early Adolesc. 2005:25(2):223–249. 10.1177/0272431604274174 DOI

Umemura T. Lacinová L, Juhová D, Pivodová L, Cheung HS. Transfer of adolescents’ attachment figures in a multi-cohort six-wave study: Person-oriented and variable-oriented approaches. J Early Adolesc. In press.

Kobak R, Rosenthal NL, Zajac K, Madsen SD. Adolescent attachment hierarchies and the search for an adult pair-bond. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2007;2007(117):57–72. 10.1002/cd.194 PubMed DOI

Kyriazos TA. Applied psychometrics: Sample size and sample power considerations in factor analysis (EFA, CFA) and SEM in general. Psychology. 2018;9(08):2207–2230. 10.4236/psych.2018.98126 DOI

Bowlby J: Attachment and loss. Vol. 2: Separation. New York: Basic Books; 1973.