Mate-Retention Behaviors Mediate the Association between Spouses' Attachment Insecurity and Subsequent Partner Satisfaction

Partner defection for an attractive alternative represents a threat to romantic relationships. Intimates’ behaviors to combat this threat are likely influenced by their attachment style. Attachment anxiety is characterized by fear of partner defection and thus intimates with relatively more (versus less) attachment anxiety likely perform more frequent mate retention. Conversely, attachment avoidance is characterized by apathy towards partner defection and thus intimates with relatively more (versus less) attachment avoidance likely perform less frequent mate retention. Moreover, given the partner-directed nature of mate-retention behaviors, such behaviors may have implications for intimates’ partners. We examined these possibilities in one cross-sectional study of undergraduates and one 3-year longitudinal study of newlywed couples. Across both studies, intimates with more attachment anxiety performed more frequent cost-inflicting mate-retention behaviors and intimates with more attachment avoidance performed less frequent benefit-provisioning mate-retention behaviors. Study 2 further demonstrated that both facets of intimates’ attachment insecurity were indirectly associated with decreased partner satisfaction over time through intimates’ over-performance of cost-inflicting mate retention and under-performance of benefit-provisioning mate retention. Implications and future directions of research are discussed.