The effects of adult romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance on facets of compliance

• Attachment avoidance predicts factor 1 scores across gender.
• Attachment anxiety and avoidance predict factor 2 scores in females.
• The effect of attachment anxiety on factor 2 scores is negative.
• Three explanations of the effect of attachment anxiety on factor 2 are possible.

The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which attachment anxiety and avoidance best explain the variation in scores on compliance factors 1 (difficulty with pressure) and 2 (eagerness to please and meet expectations), across males and females. 143 female and 100 male participants completed the Gudjonsson compliance scale, the relationship scale questionnaire and the life events questionnaire (to account for participants’ experience of negative life events, when estimating the effect of attachment on the compliance factors). Multivariate regression modelling showed that: (i) in both males and females, attachment avoidance alone explained a significant proportion of the variance in factor 1 scores; (ii) in females, both attachment avoidance and anxiety levels accounted for the variance in factor 2 scores (the effect of attachment anxiety emerged in the negative direction); and (iii) neither attachment anxiety nor attachment avoidance levels explained a significant amount of the variance in male factor 2 scores. This study suggests three possible mechanisms explaining the negative effect of attachment anxiety on factor 2 scores in females; one of which implying that eagerness to please tendencies may not always be a sign of psychological vulnerability, but could also reflect pro-social cooperation.