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Category: Project

Description: The attachment system drives behaviors aiming to maintain security. In its functioning, the different states of this dynamic system may either inhibit or activate each other. However, empirical investigation in this domain is lacking. This preregistered study, employing two ecological momentary samples (N=122 and N=127), examined cross-lagged effects between state attachment security, anxiety, and avoidance. We hypothesized dampening effects between state attachment security and insecure attachment states. Moreover, we expected trait attachment anxiety and avoidance to moderate these effects. Results revealed state attachment security to predict dampened avoidance in both samples and dampened anxiety in one sample. However, trait attachment did not moderate these effects. Our findings underscore the dominance of state attachment security over insecurities in everyday attachment dynamics.