ANXIOUS ATTACHMENT AND SELF-REPORTED DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY IN WOMEN

Objective: Lack of intimacy has been identified as an important provok ing agent that increases the risk of depressive symptoms in women. Thi s study precisely characterized lack of intimacy by assessing a woman' s attachment style and investigated the specificity of association bet ween depressive symptoms and an anxious attachment pattern. Method: Fo ur hundred and twenty women participated in the cross-sectional study of depressive symptomatology and anxious attachment. All participants completed the following measures: a sociodemographic questionnaire, th e Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Rec iprocal Attachment Questionnaire, the Social Support Questionnaire, th e Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Global Assessment of Recent Str ess Scale. Results: A score of 16 or above on the CES-D, which indicat es the presence of depressive symptoms, was used to divide the sample into 2 groups: a depressed group (N = 129) and a nondepressed group (N = 291). We found that women in the depressive symptomatology group we re more likely than women in the nondepressive symptomatology group to exhibit anxious attachment and adverse social and cognitive character istics. Lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of recent stress were also predictive of depressive symptomatology. Feared loss of the attachment figure and a lack of use of the attachment figure were ind ependent predictors of depressive symptomatology in the same model. Co nclusion: The feared loss of security associated with an attachment fi gure seems to be related to an increased likelihood of depressive symp toms.