Repressive Coping Style and Adult Romantic Attachment Style: is there a relationship?

Two studies aimed to explore whether individuals who possess a repressive coping style exhibit an avoidant style of adult romantic attachment. The Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC) and the Bendig version of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety (MAS) scale were used to select a repressive coping style group (repressors: high MC, low MAS), three extreme-scoring control groups: low anxious (low MC, low MAS); high anxious (low MC, high MAS) defensive high anxious (high MC, high MAS), and an overall nonrepressor group. Two measures of romantic adult attachment were used: a categorical measure [Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualised as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524] and a dimensional measure [Romantic Adult Attachment Style Questionnaire, RAASQ; Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 971–980]. Repressors scored significantly higher on the avoidant attachment scale of the RAASQ than all nonrepressor groups, although this result was not found with the categorical measure. The results indicate that repressors report higher levels of romantic avoidant attachment than nonrepressors, and also highlight the importance of the type of measure used to elicit information from repressors. These findings suggest a potential link between the repressive coping literature and adult attachment literature.