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Since poor adolescents may have insecure attachment styles because of the lack of their parents and have trouble with expression or acceptance of their feelings, This study aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and emotional schemas in vulnerable adolescents whom one of their parents was absent due to death, divorce or employment. This was a correlation study and samples consisted of 100 students from deprived areas of Alborz province, were randomly selected. Data collection was done by using Leahy emotional schema questionnaire and collins and read attachment styles questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS 22.0 software. The results showed that in this specific target group, there was a positive correlation between emotional schemas aspects of consensus, guilty, validation, blaming others, duration of strong feelings, controllability and anxious insecure attachment style. Also, people with avoidant attachment style showed a significant relationship with some of emotional schemas aspects such as acceptance, expression, numbness and rationality with 95% confidence.

Various psychodynamic processes may underlie the development of psychogenic pain disorder such as conversion, the displacement of affect, or narcissistic defenses. However, many of the processes suggested are related to a disorder of affect regulation. The term affect regulation in psychoanalytic literature refers to phenomena which are often described by the concept of alexithymia. Empirical observations suggest that alexithymia is correlated to insecure attachment, especially an insecure dismissing representation of attachment. Psychodynamic psychotherapy in psychogenic pain disorder should focus on the reintegration of split-off affects which may provoke intensive counter-transference and which in order to be used therapeutically must be linked to attachment experiences within and outside of the therapeutic relationship.

In South Korea, anti-feminism is now rapidly spreading online among young men, who have started to identify themselves as a social minority or "victims" of female power. Despite its ramifications, theoretically, anti-feminism is indistinct from the racism and sexism of White men that emerged more than half a century ago. In view of this, it shares the same root as typical modern racism or sexism, although it appears to be a novel phenomenon. Such a hypothesis was buttressed by quantifying the attitudes of anti-feminists toward various outgroups based on the transference of prejudice theory. Moreover, the subtle sexist undertones hidden in their arguments have been discussed using various psychological theories and empirical data/statistics. Additionally, various potential factors that may shape or accelerate their attitudes or behaviors have been discussed on the basis of the threat-defense theory. Through comprehensive literature review based on this theory, this study proposes the features related to Korean anti-feminism, encompassing behavioral/situational (overindulging violent or degrading Internet contents, verbal aggression), relational/epistemic (ostracism, attachment insecurity, pseudo-rationalism), and group-level (provocative interactions, polarization) attributes, some of which may also influence groups other than young men and ingrain or exacerbate the extreme ideologies of other groups, including young women. Scrutinizing Korean online anti-feminism and male-victim ideology may improve our understanding of the psychological origins of various social extremities or radical ideologies beyond cultural barriers., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Jung.)

This study investigates the influence of age and attachment (secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized) on children's representations of death. One hundred primary-school children, whose attachment patterns were assessed using Separation Anxiety Test, completed Düss' funeral fable. Topdown thematic content analysis was applied by coding the narrative data with respect to eight ad hoc dimensions (narrative structure, emotional content, reflective capacity, locus of control, spatial and temporal embedding, action, image of self, and image of others). Regression analyses showed age to predict aspects of narrative structure, and attachment to predict emotional contents. Analysis of variance and t-test results showed that secure attachment was associated with longer narratives, greater reflective capacity, affect, and positive representations of self; avoidant attachment with more detailed descriptions of context and less affectivity. Anxious attachment prompted negative emotions and references to irreversibility of death in the sense of an irreparable loss; disorganized attachment led to shorter narratives, bizarre and violent contents. Implications for clinical work and future lines of enquiry are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the effects of insecure attachment on vulnerability, incidence, and developing mental disorders have been confirmed by many studies, the mechanism of this effect is still unknown. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate the mediating and moderating role of the three-dimensional model of personality self-regulation in the relationship between insecure attachment and subclinical depression, anxiety, and stress. Four hundred Iranian students at Shiraz University were recruited and completed the following scales: the Revised Adult Attachment, Depression Anxiety Stress, Integrative Self-Knowledge, Mindful Attention Awareness, Self-Control, and Self-Compassion. Results showed that there was a moderate correlation among all the variables under study in the expected directions. Multiple mediating models analyses indicated that regarding the relationship between insecure attachment and depression, the components of integrative self-knowledge, self-control, and self-compassion functioned as mediators. However, regarding the relationship between insecure attachment and anxiety and stress, the components of integrative self-knowledge, mindfulness, and self-compassion relatively functioned as mediators. Further, our results showed that only mindfulness and self-compassion were identified as moderators in the relationship between insecure attachment and depression. It is concluded that insecure attachment may cause psychological damage due to deficiency in the components of the three-dimensional model of personality self-regulation, and that mindfulness and self-compassion may play a protective role in the relationship between insecure attachment and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Smartphone is a necessity for modern people because of performing various functions. However, the number of smartphone users are faced with physical, psychological, and social problems due to excessive use. In this study, we were interested in lowering the addiction of smartphone related to anxious attachment. The aim of this study is to clarify the mediating effects of experiential avoidance on the relationship between anxious attachment and smartphone addiction of undergraduate students. Methods/Statistical analysis: For this purpose, a questionnaire survey (Insecure Attachment Scale, Experiential Avoidance Scale, and Smartphone Addiction Scale) was conducted targeting undergraduate students in Busan. The total respondents were 319. A three-step regression analysis was conducted by SPSS 23.0. The effectiveness of the analysis results on the mediating effects were verified by the Sobel test. Findings: The results are summarized as follows; (i) there was a significant positive correlation anxious attachment and experiential avoidance and smartphone addiction. (ii) experiential avoidance was partially mediated between anxious attachment and smartphone addiction. The results of this study contribute to the determination of specific behaviors attributed to smartphone addiction by verifying the role of experiential avoidance on anxious attachment. Improvements/Applications: The counselor needs to explore the client's attachment type when counseling clients who overuse smartphones. The counselor expects to reduce smartphone addiction by helping them experience a secure relationship as to eliminate the client's fear of being abandoned by others. And it suggests that smartphone addiction counseling should explore the dysfunctional aspect of experiential avoidance and change. It means that assisting the client to fully experience his or her internal experience will have an effect on the results of counseling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are tens of millions of children (youth and adult) of parents who are veterans. These individuals can experience traumatic injury alongside the parent who is a combat veteran. It is a parallel process called "veterans-by-proxy." A proxy is an individual that acts on behalf of another individual. The proxy witnesses how combat traumatizes their parent and vicariously experience the trauma themselves. When a proxy suffers secondary trauma, ambiguous loss, and insecure attachment, one or more ego functions fail to adequately develop. This article proposes a conceptual framework of the proxy's loss as it relates to the parent's trauma and discusses research-based resiliency-focused interventions critical to healing the relationship between the proxy and the parent who is a combat veteran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary life history theory offers a unifying theoretical framework, emphasizing that human behaviors have been selected because they are adaptive responses to environmental challenges. There is little extant empirical research on the evolutionary origin of greed. The purpose of this study, which was based on the evolutionary life history approach, was to examine the relationships between childhood environmental unpredictability, attachment, and greed. A sample of 364 university students completed measures of greed, attachment, and childhood environment. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as predicted, childhood environmental unpredictability was positively associated with greed. Furthermore, attachment was confirmed as a mediator of the association between childhood environmental unpredictability and greed. These results define the evolutionary origin of greed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic review of the literature was conducted to evaluate whether an insecure attachment style is associated with greater anthropomorphic tendencies. We searched eight electronic databases and checked reference lists for eligible studies. After removing duplicates, 1022 titles and abstracts were appraised for eligibility. Eligible studies were those that assessed insecure attachment and anthropomorphism of non-living entities, presented original data, contained sufficient data for computing effect sizes, and were written in English. We deemed 30 articles potentially eligible and read their full texts. Six studies were eligible, with a total of 1341 participants. A quality assessment tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. Two independent raters achieved 85% agreement on the quality appraisal of the studies. The quality of the included studies was poor, with 10.7% of items coded zero (did not meet criterion at all), and an overall average quality rating of 60%. A narrative review of the eligible studies highlighted that anxious attachment and anthropomorphic tendencies are positively and moderately related, but that attachment avoidance is not related to anthropomorphism. Given the poor quality of the research to date, better quality research is needed to more conclusively establish whether and how insecure attachment styles are related to anthropomorphic tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attachment disorganization is a particularly severe form of attachment insecurity often associated with dysfunctional parent–child relationships. Attachment disorganization has highly variable presentations, often manifesting differently in infancy, early childhood, and in early and late adolescence. This article examines the developmental trajectory of children with attachment disorganization across the life span. The contribution of dysfunctional parenting to the manifestation of attachment disorganization is explored. Clinical methods designed for parents and parent–child dyads are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the moderating effects of preventionfocus on the paths from the dimensions of insecure attachment (attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety) to depression. Two hundred twenty eight Korean college students completed the Experience in Close Relationship - Revised Scale; the Regulatory Focus Strategies Scale; and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Results revealed a significant moderating effect for preventionfocus on the path from attachment avoidance to depression, but not on the path from attachment anxiety to depression. They further suggest that different interventions are needed for different combinations of persons' insecure attachment dimensions and levels of prevention-focus. Counseling implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that unhelpful cognitive processes play a role in insomnia, whereas interpersonal factors have been less studied in insomnia. Attachment theory can be used as a cognitive-interpersonal framework for understanding insomnia. Because attachment insecurity (vs security) is related to psychiatric disorders the objective was to study the attachment style in insomnia. To this aim sixty-four subjects with Insomnia Disorder (DSM-5) and 38 good sleepers were evaluate in a cross-sectional study with: Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS), Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Differences in means between groups were assessed using t -test or Mann-Whitney U/Wilcoxon test. Linear/multiple regression analyses were performed. Subjects with insomnia (mean age 47.1 + 13 yrs) presented an insecure attachment style and higher scores in all the scales (ASQ, APS, PSAS, DERS p < 0.0001) than good sleepers (mean age 48.2 + 14 yrs). After taking into account anxiety/depressive symptoms, insecure attachment was related to hyperarousal trait (p = 0.02), pre-sleep hyperarousal (p = 0.04) and emotion dysregulation (p = 0.002). In conclusion subjects with insomnia showed an insecure attachment which was related to hyperarousal trait, pre-sleep hyperarousal and emotion dysregulation. It may intervene in the trajectory of insomnia starting from predisposition to perpetuation. Clinical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Most individuals with hoarding disorder (HD) are prone to excessively acquiring new possessions. Understanding the factors that contribute to this collecting behavior will allow us to develop better treatment approaches for HD. The aim of this study was to test our assumption that an anxious attachment style is associated with a tendency to anthropomorphize comforting objects and an inability to tolerate distress, which in turn leads to excessive acquisition. Methods: A total of 361 participants with subclinical to clinical acquisition problems (77.8% female) completed a series of self-report measures. Results: As expected, greater anxious attachment was related to greater distress intolerance and stronger tendencies to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. In turn, greater distress intolerance and anthropomorphism were related to more excessive buying and greater acquisition of free items. Examination of the pathways and indirect effects showed support for double mediation rather than serial mediation, as distress intolerance did not predict anthropomorphism. Discussion and conclusion: These novel findings, if replicated, suggest that adding treatment modules that target improving distress tolerance and reducing anthropomorphism to standard treatment for HD may lead to further reductions in excessive acquiring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the central pathways to problem gambling (PG) is gambling to cope with negative moods, which is a cardinal feature of depression. Insecure attachment styles are also etiologically related to depression; and, therefore, by extension, those who are insecurely attached may engage in excessive gambling behaviors to cope with depression. In this study, we aimed to evaluate this and to this end predicted that depression severity and coping motives for gambling would conjointly mediate the relations between insecure attachment styles and PG. Data came from a larger investigation of PG within mood disorders. Participants exhibited a lifetime depressive or bipolar disorder and endorsed a mood episode within the past ten years. Participants (N=275) completed self-report measures during a two-day assessment. Path analysis supported two main indirect effects. First, anxious attachment predicted elevated depression, which in turn predicted increased coping motives for gambling, which subsequently predicted greater PG severity. Second, this double mediational pathway was also observed for avoidant attachment. Results suggest that insecure attachment relates to PG via depressive symptoms and coping-related gambling motives. Mood symptoms and associated gambling motives are malleable and are promising targets of gambling interventions for insecurely attached individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research indicates that anxious (or preoccupied) and avoidant (or dismissing) attachment orientations can lead to an aversion to the experience and/or expression of happiness. The present study predicted and found positive relationships between insecure attachment, fear of happiness (the idea that happiness should be avoided because it causes bad things to happen) and fragility of happiness (the idea that happiness is fleeting and may be easily and quickly replaced by less favorable states). In addition, it was found that fear and fragility of happiness mediated the relationship between insecure attachment and subjective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inferiority feelings, attachment styles, and gender are some of the variables influenced by culture. In this study, relationships between the three variables were examined with regression analysis in 154 university students who were seeking counseling for close relationships problems. The results indicated that abnormal inferiority feelings significantly predicted both attachment anxiety (R² = .30, p ≤ .01, Cohen's f 2 = .42) and attachment avoidance (R² = .10; p < .01, Cohen's f 2 = .12) for all participants. Abnormal inferiority feelings significantly predicted attachment avoidance for males (β = .31; p < .05), and predicted only attachment anxiety for females (β = .36; p < .01). While the discouragement subscale of abnormal inferiority feelings was a significant predictive factor of insecure attachment for both males and females, useless superiority effort was a significant predictive factor only for males. The results are discussed in terms of culture, and recommendations are provided for culturally sensitive therapeutic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing evidence for the role of attachment in psychosis, however, to date there has been no quantitative review of the prevalence of insecure attachment in psychosis. The current study sought to systematically appraise studies investigating the prevalence of insecure attachment and the association with psychosis-spectrum experiences using meta-analytic techniques. A systematic search of studies carried out between January 1980 and 30th November 2015 found 25 papers eligible for inclusion. The meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of insecure attachment style was significantly higher in individuals with psychosis (76%) than in non-clinical samples (38%), with fearful attachment being the most prevalent. Across the continuum, there was a small but significant relationship between positive symptom severity and insecure attachment and a significant relationship between negative symptom severity and insecure attachment in the non-clinical analysis. This relationship was not found in the clinical group. The prevalence of insecure attachment appears to be high in psychosis, however, the relationship between symptom severity and attachment is small. Attachment theory may provide greater understanding of the development of positive symptoms than previously thought, however, research needs to include more at-risk samples and longitudinal research to fully understand the dynamics of this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the role of emotion regulation difficulties and intrusive/deliberate rumination in the relationship between insecure attachment and prolonged grief symptoms. A total sample of 342 bereaved participants was included in the study. Both anxious and avoidant attachment styles were found to be associated with prolonged grief symptoms, with an avoidant attachment showing a stronger effect. Emotion regulation difficulties and rumination mediated the relationships between attachment styles and prolonged grief symptoms, supporting the proposed mediation model. The study identified specific mediating pathways for anxious and avoidant attachment styles. Additionally, female gender, higher age, unexpected death, and closeness of the relationship with the deceased were significant predictors of prolonged grief symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]