Gender and birth cohort differences in adult attachment in Chinese college students: A meta-analysis

Attachment anxiety and smartphone addiction among university students during confinement: Teacher–student relationships, student–student relationships and school connectedness as mediators

Learning at home during the COVID-19 confinement might affect students' relationships with their peers, teachers, and schools and increase the possibility of smartphone addiction. We hypothesized that attachment anxiety directly and indirectly affects smartphone addiction, with teacher–student relationships, student–student relationships, and school connectedness as mediators. The participants were 999 university students from different regions of China. The results showed that six of the paths were significant except the one between student–student relationships and smartphone addiction. Also, the association between attachment anxiety and smartphone addiction was mediated by teacher–student relationships and school connectedness not but student–student relationships. The current study highlights the mediating effect of school connectedness and teacher–student relationships in the multiple mediation model, and suggests that universities can alleviate the risk of smartphone addiction in distance teaching by cultivating good teacher–student relationships and strengthening students' sense of belonging to their schools.

Parental Attachment, Adult-Child Romantic Attachment, and Marital Satisfaction: An Examination of Cultural Context in Taiwanese and Thai Heterosexual Couples

Relationship dynamics between married couples can differ considerably, with varying impacts on relationship satisfaction. However, very limited research attention has been paid to how intergenerational attachment, relating to an individual’s perception of his/her own and that of his/her parents’ attachment, can affect marital dynamics within different cultural contexts. The current study examined associations between married heterosexual couples’ romantic attachment, perception of parental attachment, and marital satisfaction in 100 Thai couples (M age = 45.59 years, SD = 10.86) and 73 Taiwanese couples (M age = 39.55 years, SD = 9.13). Results revealed that romantic attachment anxiety was negatively associated with marital satisfaction in the Taiwanese couples; in the Thai couples, neither romantic attachment anxiety nor avoidance was associated with marital satisfaction. Husbands reported higher romantic attachment anxiety than their wives in Taiwan, but this was not observed in the Thai couples. Taiwanese wives reported higher scores on their perceived parental attachment avoidance than did their husbands; whereas the reverse trend was observed in the Thai couples. These findings highlight the need to consider intergenerational aspects of attachment in cultural contexts, and they have important implications for practitioners working with couples from Asian cultural backgrounds.

Sex differences in attachment styles

Sex differences in attachment styles have been found in adulthood, emerge as early as middle childhood, and can be sizable when described at the appropriate level of analysis. However, they have received relatively little attention in mainstream attachment research. Here I review the evidence of sex differences in attachment, including what is currently known about developmental patterns and cross-cultural variation. I summarize existing evolutionary models of sex differences, and discuss evidence for a role of prenatal and postnatal sex hormones. I highlight current theoretical and empirical gaps in the literature, and call for more integrative research on this fascinating topic.