Couple conflict: insights from an attachment perspective

• The experience of conflict in romantic relationships is highly stressful.
• Conflict has significant implications for relationship satisfaction and longevity.
• Severe and persistent conflict can activate the attachment behavioral system.
• Responses to conflict are shaped, in part, by individual differences in attachment.
• Both partners’ conflict responses mediate the attachment-relationship quality link.

The experience of conflict is often cited as a highly stressful relational phenomenon by romantic couples, and can have negative implications for relationship satisfaction and for the longevity of romantic relationships. In this paper, we review extant research on couple conflict in romantic relationships from an attachment theory perspective. The research we review is underpinned by two central tenets: firstly, severe or persistent conflict activates the attachment system; secondly, responses to couple conflict involve complex attachment dynamics, shaped by partners’ attachment anxiety and avoidance. The research reviewed has important implications for both research and practice in the area of couple conflict, and clearly demonstrates how conflict can act as a stressor that shapes relationship functioning.