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This study investigated the extent to which adult attachment and reflective functioning impact subjective difficulties in emotion regulation. Previous research has demonstrated a connection between the quality of attachment and the capacity for emotion regulation. The research has also demonstrated the intergenerational transmission of attachment status and emotion regulation patterns through the construct of RF, as well as a connection between reflective functioning and affect regulation. Ours is the first study to empirically examine the relationships among attachment, RF, and emotion regulation with adult self-report measures and the Brief Reflective Functioning Interview (Rudden, Milrod, and Target 2005) in a nonclinical sample.
Participants. The participants consisted of 125 undergraduate and community men (n = 40) and women (n = 85), Mage = 22.33, SD = 6.37. The demographic breakdown was 27.2% African American, 12.8% African Caribbean, 12% Latino/a, 12% Caucasian, 7.2% South Asian, 7.2% Middle Eastern, and 18.6% Other.
Hypotheses. The investigators examined the following primary hypotheses. (1) Based on attachment theories and empirical research findings that secure attachment is related to better emotion regulation and overall psychological and emotional well-being (Bowlby 1969, 1980: Egeland, Carlson, and Sroufe 1993; Lyons-Ruth et al. 2006), it was hypothesized that secure attachment in adults will be significantly negatively related to difficulties in emotion regulation. (2) The attachment literature predicts that insecurely attached adults will exhibit difficulties in emotion regulation (Cassidy and Berlin 1994; Slade et al. 1999); thus it was hypothesized that (a) an anxious attachment classification will have a significant positive relation to difficulties in emotion regulation and (b)