Family expressiveness and attachment

This study examines how family expressiveness relates to individuals' internal working models of attachment relationships. Seventy-two college students completed the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire (FEQ, Halberstadt, 1986) and participated in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI, George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985). When the young adults' attachment interviews were coded using the attachment Q-sort (Kobuk, Cole, Ferenz-Gillies, Fleming, & Gamble, 1993), dismissing attachment and preoccupation with attachment were associated with family expressiveness. When total family expressiveness was categorized by type of affect (positive and negative) and power relation (dominance and submission), low levels of family expressiveness were related to dismissing attachment. Negative dominance was the only type of family expressiveness that was related to both security/anxiety and deactivation/hyperactivation of attachment. Results are discussed in terms of primary and secondary attachment strategies and distinctions between dominant and submissive negative affect.