Attachment style and underlying concerns in romantic relationship conflict.

The current study investigated the relationship between underlying concerns in romantic relationship conflict and adult attachment. Participants were 109 undergraduate students in dating relationships who completed between one and five assessments via internet questionnaire over the course of eight weeks. At each assessment, participants considered a recent conflict in their romantic relationship, and completed measures of underlying concerns in the conflict as well as attachment at the time of the conflict. Data were analyzed at the within-person level as well as at the between-person level. At the within-person level, the underlying concern of perceived partner under-investment was predicted by attachment anxiety but not by attachment avoidance. In addition, the underlying concern of perceived partner threat was predicted by both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. After controlling for within-person effects, perceived partner under-investment was further predicted by participants' mean level of attachment anxiety.