Towards explaining relationship dissatisfaction in Chinese dating couples: Relationship disillusionment, emergent distress, or insecure attachment style?

•Results underscored plausible links between attachment and dissatisfaction.•Avoidant attachment has stronger links with satisfaction than does anxious attachment.•Disillusionment and emergent distress variables had mediation roles in models.•Avoidant women with conflict elevations were less satisfied with in-laws.

The sample (N = 712) comprised both partners from 356 heterosexual dating partners living in Chongqing, China. Participants completed a self-report battery that included measures of relationship satisfaction, satisfaction with in-law relations, passionate love, relationship aggrandizement and disillusionment, conflict tactics, and attachment styles. Structural equation modeling indicated attachment difficulties, particularly high levels of avoidant attachment, were associated with elevations in disillusionment as well as conflict which, in turn, predicted decreased satisfaction with one's partner and in-laws. Similar strengths of association between these experiences and overall model fits were observed within each gender. In sum, the study provides plausible integrated accounts of links between attachment style and relationship dissatisfaction within dating couples in a particular non-Western context.