Married life: Measuring adult romantic attachment and satisfaction.

Abstract

Attachment style was related to satisfaction. Previous studies have reported that a person's romantic attachment style appears to determine the level of satisfaction in his/her marriage. Although research on attachment has been widely studied, there is a dearth of information on the romantic attachment in Malaysia and the connection between romantic attachment and marital satisfaction. Thus, this research is specifically aimed to study the romantic attachment styles among married individuals in Malaysia and to establish the link between romantic attachment styles and marital satisfaction. K-means cluster analysis was conducted to fulfill the objectives, with a total of 400 (n = 400) married individuals in Penang, Malaysia have participated in this study. The data revealed that the majority of the respondents can be categorized under secure style, followed by dismissive, fearful, and preoccupied styles. The result further disclosed that respondents in secure attachment style are the most satisfied respondents in marriage compared to respondents in preoccupied, dismissive, and fearful attachment styles. The findings provide useful insights that assist counselors or psychologists during the counseling and therapy sessions to instill positive attachment style toward marital satisfaction.