Attachment insecurity and intimate partner violence

We argue that human attachment encompasses a broad spectrum of attachment insecurities including fearful and preoccupied attachment style, negative emotionality (NEM), and borderline personality organization (BPO). These, in turn, have a developing literature to link them as causative factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) in both adolescents and adults. These broad spectrum attachment disorders constitute the major psychological predictor of IPV. Direct assessments indicate that they increase the likelihood of aggression in adolescents and intimate partner violence in adults. Some of the proposed mechanisms increasing aggression in insecurely attached people include alterations in the appraisal of threat due to an inability to call on memories of parental support and diminished ability to implement affective controls and impulsivity.

► Caregiver interactions influence attachment (in)security throughout life.
► The spectrum of insecure attachment encompasses borderline personality.
► Insecure attachment predicts the use of adolescent aggression and adult IPV.