title: Do episodic self- and partner-uncertainty mediate the association between attachment orientations and emotional responses to relationship-threatening events in dating couples?
abstract: This study examined relational-uncertainty perceptions (a form of cognitive appraisal) to investigate how partners in 272 heterosexual couples responded emotionally to a relationship-challenging event. Participants rated themselves on attachment anxiety and avoidance. Then, after listing a challenging event, they rated how uncertain it made them about their own and their partner's continued involvement in the relationship. Participants also rated how angry and fearful the event made them. An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model yielded three sets of results. First, actor effects from insecure attachment orientations to episodic relational uncertainty emerged. Second, proposed mediation between attachment orientations and emotional reactions by uncertainty was partially supported (perceived partner-uncertainty partially mediated the positive association of anxious attachment and fear, and self-uncertainty partially mediated the positive relation between avoidant attachment and anger). Finally, a partner effect was found between one couple member's avoidant attachment and the other's perceived partner uncertainty. Men and women exhibited similar findings.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Human Development and Family Studies , College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University , Lubbock , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niehuis
authors.affiliation: a Department of Human Development and Family Studies , College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University , Lubbock , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reifman
authors.affiliation: a Department of Human Development and Family Studies , College of Human Sciences, Texas Tech University , Lubbock , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Judith L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: b Military Family Research Institute, Purdue University , West Lafayette , IN , USA.
authors.forename: Kyung-Hee
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anger; Attachment theory; Dating relationships; Episodic relational uncertainty; Fear