A partner's anger or frustration isn't fun for anybody, but may be particularly hard
on avoidant individuals.
Not exact matches
Indeed, a German study involving a small sample of grandparents found that
individuals with an
avoidant attachment had lower scores
on both social integration and physical health than secure
individuals (Wensauer and Grossmann 1995).
Avoidant individuals do not like to face problems head -
on.
Fortunately, having a partner who is more securely attached (less anxious) appears to mitigate the negative effect of attachment avoidance
on responsiveness.4 The fact that
avoidant people responded the worst when their partner was high in attachment anxiety might be because anxious
individuals» yearning for closeness and affirmation pushes away the
avoidant partner, resulting in less effective capitalization.
Anxious
individuals tend to strongly desire relationships and want to be especially close to their partners, while
avoidant people generally desire less closeness, are less trusting and less reliant
on their partners.
Highly
avoidant individuals also reported using more hostile behaviors
on days when they believed their partners to be experiencing highly negative emotions.
Based
on limited findings that difficulties with role balance may uniquely contribute to depression among college students (Lopez and Fons - Scheyd in J Coll Couns 11:133 — 147, 2008; Marks and McDermid in J Marriage Family 58:417 — 432, 1996) and may be associated with
individual factors such as internal working models of attachment, this study tested the indirect effects of anxious and
avoidant attachment
on depression through role balance using a college student sample (n = 299).
Individuals who score high
on either the anxious (self) or
avoidant (other) axis can be considered to have an «insecure» attachment schema.