Mood Dependency of Self-Rated Attachment Style

Previous research has established an association between depressive symptoms and self-rated insecure adult attachment styles. In this project we evaluated whether this association is an artifact of mood-dependent negative self-ratings. In Study 1 (N = 95, nonclinical sample), depressive symptoms correlated positively with Preoccupied and Fearful attachment style self-ratings, negatively with Secure attachment style. In Study 2 (N = 50 nondepressed adults, one-half with a history of major depression), recovered depressed people exceeded never-depressed adults on Preoccupied and Fearful styles, whereas the never-depressed scored higher on Secure attachment style. In Study 3 (N = 129), an unselected adult sample was randomly assigned to either depressed or elated musical mood induction. The two groups did not differ significantly on 3 of 4 attachment styles; theonly significant difference was that those in the depressed-mood condition scored lower on Fearful attachment. Taken together, the results are consistent with the possibility that insecure (particularly Preoccupied and Fearful) attachment is a stable vulnerability factor for depression and do not support the view that reporting insecure attachment is an artifact of current sad mood.