The Relationship Between Attachment Styles and Sex Guilt Among Iranian Women

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between sex guilt and attachment styles. The data presented here were obtained from a total of 192 married Iranian women who were selected via a multi-cluster sampling method from three universities in Tehran. The subjects’ socio-demographic data, attachment styles (Adult Attachment Styles Index), and sex guilt (Mosher Revised Sex-Guilt Inventory) was gathered. Findings showed significant relationships between sex guilt and secure attachment style (r = −0.265, p < 0.01), Insecure-ambivalent attachment style (r = 0.241, p < 0.01) and insecure-avoidant attachment style (r = 0.257, p < 0.01). Also there were significant relationships between sex guilt and age (r = 0.438, p < 0.01) and marital duration (r = 0.345, p < 0.01). Age, insecure-ambivalent and insecure-avoidant attachment styles were able to predict 25.1 percent of the variance of sex guilt. In conclusion, higher scores in secure attachment styles in women are associated with lower scores of sex guilt and higher scores in insecure-ambivalent and insecure-avoidant attachment styles are associated with higher levels of sex guilt among women. Also, age and marital duration are positively correlated with sex guilt in women.