Article

The Influence of Adult Attachment on Interpersonal Abilities: The Intermediate Effect of Emotion Regulation Style and Social Anxiety

Author

강수진,최영희

Information

pp. 53~68 / 2011 Vol.18 No.3

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of adult attachment on interpersonal abilitiesby analyzing the effect of emotion regulation style and social anxiety. The subjects were 629 universitystudents. The instruments were the ECR-R(Fraley et al., 2000) adapted by Kim(2004) for adultattachment, the CERQ(Garnefski et al., 2001) adapted by Kim(2004) for emotion regulation style, theSAS-A((LaGreca, 1998) adapted by Moon and Oh(2002) for social anxiey, and the ICQ(Buhrmester et al.,1988) adapted by Kim and Kim(1999) for interpersonal ability. Data were analyzed by frequency,Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression. The main results were as follows: First, attachment avoidanceand anxiety were negatively related with interpersonal abilities. Attachment avoidance showed a higherdegree of predictability of interpersonal abilities than attachment anxiety. Second, interpersonal abilities wereinfluenced by adult attachment through the intermediate effect of the emotion regulation style. Emotionalregulation style influenced interpersonal abilities and was partly intermediated by attachment avoidance;whilst it was wholly intermediated by attachment anxiety. Third, interpersonal abilities were influenced byadult attachment through the intermediate operation of the social anxiety. Social anxiety influencedinterpersonal abilities and was partly intermediated by attachment avoidance whilst being whollyintermediated by attachment anxiety. The results of this study suggest the validity of cognitive interventionupon emotional regulation style and furthermore social anxiety may be helpful for those clients withinterpersonal relations derived from attachment problems.

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