Romantic attachment and commitment: a mediation model

As defined by Bowlby (1969, 1982), attachment system is directed to maintain closeness to a significant other who is able to give support and protection in dangerous situations. Moreover, Bowlby (1969) theorized that a couple relationship might lead to the “co-construction” of a new attachment representational model, based on the repeated interactions with the romantic partner. Starting from the attachment styles identified by Hazan and Shaver in 1987 (secure, anxious, avoidant); Brennan et al. (1998) showed that attachment insecurity could be related to attachment anxiety (partners who are uncertain of the availability of close others and seek support from their own partners); or attachment avoidance (partners who doubt the availability of close others and dismiss intimacy within the romantic relationship). In insecure attachment, partners report low levels of satisfaction, intimacy and trust within couple relationship (Collins & Read, 1990; Li & Chan, 2012). Considering studies about couples, the Investment Model (Rusbult, 1983) underlines that the competence to maintain a romantic relationship is based on the degree to which partners are able to mutually satisfy their life goals through that relationship as a whole. This model identified commitment as a central factor, able to moderate the relation between different interdependency variables and the couple wellbeing. Our study aims to verify the possible role of commitment in mediating the relation between avoidant attachment and couple satisfaction. To confirm this hypothesis we rated attachment styles using the ECR-R (Fraley, Waller & Brennan, 2000), couple satisfaction using the DAS (Spanier, 1976) and level of commitment (reported and perceived) using the IMS (Rusbult et al., 1998) on a sample of 200 couples. We suppose that avoidant individuals who also report high levels on commitment, will be more satisfied within their relationship. Our findings will be useful for building possible interventions to promote couple wellbeing