Attachment, depression, and fear of death in older adults: The roles of neediness and perceived availability of social support

Besser, Avi; Priel, Beatriz

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2008.01.016

Cited by 40 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Research has shown that insecurely attached individuals' inability to harness social support contributes to depression (Besser and Priel 2008). Although people in different cultures may endorse different levels of attachment styles, insecure attachment appears to hinder well-being across cultures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Adult Attachment Styles to Relationship Satisfaction in Hong Kong and the United States: The Mediating Role of Personal and Structural Commitment

Chen

Bond

et al. 2011

J Happiness Stud

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Maintaining a satisfying heterosexual relationship is important to many individuals' happiness and physical health. Evolutionary theories on the formation of relationships suggest that adult attachment and relationship commitment are universal mechanisms for securing and maintaining such mating relationships. This study sought to understand how these two mechanisms may link to each other and how they in turn contribute to relationship satisfaction with one's current partner in Hong Kong Chinese and American cultures. Similarities in the model for relationship satisfaction were found among young dating couples in the United States and Hong Kong. Specifically, attachment anxiety was positively linked to structural commitment, whereas attachment avoidance was negatively related to personal commitment. Both dimensions of attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and both components of commitment (personal and structural) were found to predict current relationship satisfaction significantly and equivalently across cultures, with the pathway from attachment avoidance to current relationship satisfaction similarly mediated by personal commitment in both cultural groups. These results were interpreted in terms of a probable universal logic informing the interpersonal dynamics involving attachment and relationship commitment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Adult Attachment Styles to Relationship Satisfaction in Hong Kong and the United States: The Mediating Role of Personal and Structural Commitment

Chen

Bond

et al. 2011

J Happiness Stud

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“…Although findings are less convergent about the impact of avoidant attachment on well-being, most studies have revealed that those with high levels of avoidant attachment appraise stressful situations as threatening, but also appraise themselves as eligible people to cope with stressors. As an example, Besser and Priel (2008) demonstrated that insecurely attached inability to harness social support contributes to negative health outcomes. In the same vein, Brunette et al (2009a, b) suggested that insecurely-attached individuals' responses to interpersonal offenses could contribute to depressive symptoms.…”

Section: The Mediating Role Of Attachment Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Authentic Leadership and Employee Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Attachment Insecurity

2014

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and the three dimensions of employee well-being (job satisfaction, perceived work stress, and stress symptoms). Furthermore, attachment insecurity was considered as a mediating factor between authentic leadership and the three dimensions of employee well-being. Data were obtained from a field sample of 212 health care providers with patient contact at five hospitals in the North East of Iran. Initially, collected data were analyzed with multiple confirmatory factor analyses. Then, structural equation modeling was applied to test proposed hypotheses. First, it was shown that authentic leadership negatively impacted attachment insecurity. Second, attachment insecurity proved to be a factor impinging upon job satisfaction. On the contrary, higher levels of attachment insecurity was associated with higher levels of perceived stress and stress symptoms. Third, it was revealed that attachment insecurity partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction and fully mediated the relationship between authentic leadership, perceived stress, and stress symptoms. According to the literature of authentic leadership, this is one of the first research studies, and literally the first in the East exploring the effects of authentic leadership on the exclusive combination of dimensions offered in this paper. Moreover, researchers in the field of management have not delved enough into attachment and its antecedents and consequences in leader-follower relationship. This is one of the first studies to provide evidence of the relationship between authentic leadership, attachment security and employee well-being. As a further analysis, the final model was separately put under the two different lens of gender (female and male) and some interesting findings were discussed in the discussion.

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“…Although the more adaptive factor (''connectedness'' or ''relatedness'') reflects mature and reciprocal interpersonal concern with a relationship with a particular significant other (Besser and Priel, 2008;Campos et al, 2010Campos et al, , 2011, the maladaptive/vulnerability factor (''neediness'' or ''dependence'') involves excessive preoccupation with the availability of love, nurturance, and support, together with strong fears of abandonment and rejection. Because this study focused on vulnerability to depression, we focused on the personality vulnerability factors to depression (i.e., self-criticism and neediness) and examined their relationships with humor styles and depressive symptoms.…”

Section: Self-criticism Neediness and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Humor Styles Mediate or Moderate the Relationship Between Self-Criticism and Neediness and Depressive Symptoms?

Besser

Luyten²

2011

Journal of Nervous &Amp; Mental Disease

Self Cite

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This study examined whether, in a community sample of Israeli adults (N = 335), benign (i.e., affiliative and self-enhancing) and injurious (i.e., aggressive and self-defeating) humor styles mediated or moderated the relationship between self-criticism and neediness, two traits that confer vulnerability to depression, on the one hand, and levels of depressive symptoms, on the other. There was no evidence of any moderating effect of humor styles on the relationship between self-criticism and neediness and depressive symptoms. However, results indicated that the use of injurious styles of humor mediated the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms as well as the relationship between neediness and depressive symptoms. Moreover, the relationship between neediness and depressive symptoms was also mediated by low levels of benign humor. These findings may have important implications for theories concerning vulnerability to depressive symptoms and intervention strategies.Key Words: Self-criticism, neediness, humor, depression, affect regulation. (J Nerv Ment Dis 2011;199: 757Y764) G rowing evidence indicates that high levels of self-criticism and neediness (i.e., maladaptive dependency) are associated with increased vulnerability to depression (see Blatt and Luyten, 2010;Mongrain and Leather, 2006;Schulte et al., 2008;Zuroff et al., 2004). However, the mechanisms by which these personality dimensions confer vulnerability to depression are still relatively poorly understood. Increasing evidence suggests that both self-criticism and neediness are associated with maladaptive affect-regulation strategies, particularly in the context of close interpersonal relationships, which may partially explain their association with depression [see Blatt and Luyten, 2009, for a review]. Humor, particularly the use of benign versus injurious styles of humor, may play an important but, until now, relatively neglected role in this context. Indeed, studies increasingly point to the importance of humor as an affect-regulation strategy, particularly in interpersonal relationships (e.g., Besser A, Luyten P, Mayes LC Adult attachment and distress: The mediating role of humor styles [submitted for publication, 2011]; Besser and Zeigler-Hill, 2011;Martin, 2007;Miczo et al., 2009;Taber et al., 2007;Zeigler-Hill and Besser, 2011). Congruent with these findings, it has been suggested that humor may play an important role in resiliency in the face of adversity (Fonagy et al., 1994;Luyten et al., 2011;Martin, 2001Martin, , 2007Vaillant, 1977Vaillant, , 2000. In light of this previous work, the present study explored the roles of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles as mediators or moderators of the associations of depressive symptoms with the vulnerability factors of self-criticism and neediness. Self-Criticism, Neediness, and DepressionPersonality development, according to Blatt (1974Blatt ( , 1991Blatt ( , 2004Blatt ( , 2008, involves the integration of a person's development of selfdefinition with the capacity for...

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Attachment, depression, and fear of death in older adults: The roles of neediness and perceived availability of social support

Cited by 40 publications

References 33 publications

Linking Adult Attachment Styles to Relationship Satisfaction in Hong Kong and the United States: The Mediating Role of Personal and Structural Commitment

Linking Adult Attachment Styles to Relationship Satisfaction in Hong Kong and the United States: The Mediating Role of Personal and Structural Commitment

Authentic Leadership and Employee Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Attachment Insecurity

Do Humor Styles Mediate or Moderate the Relationship Between Self-Criticism and Neediness and Depressive Symptoms?

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