Attachment anxiety and friendship group identification under attachment threat: the moderating role of priming support network expectations

Rosenthal, H.E.S.; Walsh, J.; Crisp, R.J.; Farrow, C.V.; Waugh, M.J.; Blissett, J.; Millings, A.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.035

Attachment anxiety and friendship group identification under attachment threat: the moderating role of priming support network expectations

Rosenthal, H.E.S.; Walsh, J.; Crisp, R.J.; Farrow, C.V.; Waugh, M.J.; Blissett, J.; Millings, A.

Authors

H.E.S. Rosenthal

J. Walsh

Professor Richard Crisp richard.j.crisp@durham.ac.uk
Professor

C.V. Farrow

M.J. Waugh

J. Blissett

A. Millings

Abstract

We examined the role of priming participants’ own network expectations on their subsequent identification with their friendship group. We examined this prime alongside attachment anxiety and attachment threat, as predictors of friendship group identification. Previous research has suggested that attachment anxiety is associated with negative network expectations. In this study, we extended this work to show that when a network expectation prime was absent, higher attachment anxiety was associated with lower group identification under attachment threat, compared to a control condition. However, when expectations of support network were primed, attachment threat no longer affected group identification, so that only attachment anxiety predicted group identification. This suggests that priming participants who are high in attachment anxiety with their own network expectancies (which are negative), results in participants dis-identifying with their friendship group, regardless of whether or not they have experienced attachment threat.

Citation

Rosenthal, H., Walsh, J., Crisp, R., Farrow, C., Waugh, M., Blissett, J., & Millings, A. (2012). Attachment anxiety and friendship group identification under attachment threat: the moderating role of priming support network expectations. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(5), 562-567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.035

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 20, 2012
Online Publication Date	May 17, 2012
Publication Date	Oct 1, 2012
Deposit Date	Apr 27, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Jun 19, 2012
Journal	Personality and Individual Differences
Print ISSN	0191-8869
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	53
Issue	5
Pages	562-567
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.035
Keywords	Attachment anxiety, Friendship group, Identification, Priming, Support network expectations.

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Personality and individual differences. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version will be subsequently published in Personality and individual differences, October 2012, 10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.035