Does Attachment Get Under the Skin? Adult Romantic Attachment and Cortisol Responses to Stress

Abstract

Although many studies indicate that people in low quality relationships are less healthy, precisely how relationships influence health remains unclear. We focus on one physiological pathway that may provide clues to understanding the link between relationships and health: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Evidence indicates that attachment processes in adult romantic relationships are associated with HPA responses to stress (assessed via cortisol levels). Specifically, attachment insecurity predicts different cortisol patterns than does attachment security, especially when the stressor potentially threatens the relationship. Thus, attachment may get under the skin through biological responses to attachment-relevant stressors, but further work is needed to pinpoint the complete physiological and behavioral pathways through which attachment may influence health and disease outcomes.

Relationships and Health: The Critical Role of Affective Science

“…Furthermore, there is a growing literature on the role of attachment styles and health-relevant physiological responses (e.g.. Pietromonaco PR, Uchino, & Dunkel Schetter, 2013). Recent work, for example, shows that attachment insecurity predicts cortisol patterns in response to laboratory-based stress (Pietromonaco, DeBuse, & Powers, 2013); that attachment anxiety is associated with greater blood pressure reactivity when adults speak about their marital separation in an over-involved way (Lee et al, 2011); that attachment anxiety is associated with altered cellular immunity and immune dysregulation (Jaremka, Glaser, Loving, Malarkey, Stowell, & Kiecolt-Glaser, Relationships, Affect and Health 14 2013); and that attachment anxiety is related to the expression of a latent herpes virus (Fagundes et al, 2014). (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008).…”

Attachment and health-related physiological stress processes

“…Across a number of studies, attachment insecurity in adults has been associated with cortisol responses in situations involving attachment-related threats; however, the connection between attachment insecurity and cortisol responses is less clear in situations that do not involve an attachment-related threat (e.g., nonsocial contexts, tasks involving strangers) [7]. New findings point to the interplay between both relationship partners’ characteristics (e.g., their attachment styles) as a unique context that may influence cortisol responses.…”

“…Physiological stress response systems offer likely pathways linking attachment to downstream health outcomes. Accordingly, we focus here on recent evidence examining links between attachment and primary stress response systems: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), sympathetic-adrenal medullary (SAM) and the immune systems [4,7]. …”

Tie-Up Cycles in Long-Term Mating. Part I: Theory

“…Likewise, cortisol levels clearly mark marital conflict situations linked to TU-C frustrations [130]. More generally, Pietromonaco et al [131] show how attachment processes are regulated by the Hypotalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in terms of stress responses, thus highlighting the existence of a specific neuroendocrine strategy for tackling attachment-related stressors.…”