FAMILY EXPRESSIVENESS AND ATTACHMENT

This study examines how family expressiveness relates to individuals' internal working models of attachment relationships. Seventy-two colle ge students completed the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire (FEQ, Ha lberstadt, 1986) and participated in the Adult Attachment Interview (A AI, George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985). When the young adults' attachment i nterviews were coded using the attachment Q-sort (Kobuk, Cole, Ferenz- Gillies, Fleming, & Gamble, 1993), dismissing attachment and preoccupa tion with attachment were associated with family expressiveness. When total family expressiveness was categorized by type of affect (positiv e and negative) and power relation (dominance and submission), low lev els of family expressiveness were related to dismissing attachment. Ne gative dominance was the only type of family expressiveness that was r elated to both security/anxiety and deactivation/hyperactivation of at tachment. Results are discussed in terms of primary and secondary atta chment strategies and distinctions between dominant and submissive neg ative affect.