Development of Attachment in Romantic Relationship of Young Adults with Different Love Styles

This study reconstructed the participants’ retrospective experience of how attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety developed during the course of romantic relationships in young adults. Participants (290 undergraduate students) recalled their stories of love relationships that occurred approximately between the ages of 15and19. The feelings of avoidance and anxiety, which were experienced as a result of the events that occurred throughout the relationships, were analyzed. The general dynamics of these dimensions as well as the patterns that are typical for different love styles were discovered. The application of methodology to analysis of individual change in romantic attachment during relationship is demonstrated.