The Effect of Gender on the Relationship Between Attachment, Relationship Adjustment and Conflict Resolution Styles in Romantic Relationships
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10431484Keywords:
Attachment, gender, relationship adjustment, conflict resolutionAbstract
Attachment orientations are one of the sources of behaviors and beliefs in romantic relationships. Investigating the effects of secure and insecure attachment patterns on various dimensions of romantic relationships enriches the debate on the dynamic structure of the relationships. The findings on whether there is a gender differentiation in terms of relational factors interacting with attachment offer a variety of perspectives on the dynamic nature of the romantic relationship, rather than pointing to a single conclusion. Attachment orientation did not show a significant difference between men and women; however, the effect of gender on the relationship of attachment with other variables in romantic relationships is observed.
In general, insecure attachment is associated with ineffective conflict resolution strategies and negatively affects relationship adjustment. This study examines the effect of conflict resolution strategies on the relationship between attachment orientation and perceived relationship adjustment in the romantic relationship process through gender. The research group consisted of university students who had romantic relationship experience, and the variables were investigated with the structural equation model. Two models were proposed for women and men and the suitability of the models was determined. The results show that relational variables have different pathways of action in men and women. Attachment anxiety in women predicts a decrease in relationship adjustment mediated by an increase in negative conflict resolution styles. This effect does not apply to positive conflict resolution strategies. In men, it was revealed that attachment avoidance predicted relationship adjustment while decreasing positive conflict style had a mediating effect. Unlike the model proposed for women, the increase in attachment anxiety and the use of negative conflict resolution styles in men do not have a direct effect on perceived relationship adjustment.
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