Understanding availability of comforting support messages from a networked attachment perspective

Drawing upon attachment theory, social network research, and social support research, this paper forwards a networked attachment perspective to understand how verbal comforting support may go undersupply. An initial test of the perspective was conducted with multilevel modeling on data reported by 505 young individuals about themselves and their 2124 friends nested within individuals’ ego-centric support networks. Results showed that perceiving greater attachment anxiety or avoidance within a friend was related to receiving fewer emotional and esteem support messages from the friend. Additionally, attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) reported by an individual (ego) were positively related to their perception of attachment insecurities (anxiety, avoidance) of friends (alters) in their support network, except for the relationship between ego attachment avoidance and (ego perceived) alter attachment anxiety, which was not significant. The findings suggest a potential insecurity-binding phenomenon in ego-centric support networks (composed of friends), such that an individual with greater attachment insecurities tends to have more (what they perceived as) insecure friends, who tend to provide fewer comforting support messages. Practical implications were also discussed. 本文基于依恋理论、社会网络研究与社会支持研究, 提出了一个“网络化依恋”视角, 以解释安慰性支持为何可能会供给不足。对505名年轻人及其自我中心支持网络中共计2124位朋友的数据进行的多层次建模分析初步检验了该视角。结果显示, 当个体感知到某位朋友具有更高的依恋焦虑或回避水平时, 感知到来自该朋友的情感与自尊支持信息显著减少。此外, 个体自身报告的依恋不安全感 (焦虑, 回避) 与其所感知的朋友的依恋不安全感之间呈正相关, 唯独个体的依恋回避与其所感知的朋友的依恋焦虑之间的关系不显著。研究发现揭示了自我中心支持网络中可能存在一种“依恋不安全绑定”现象: 即具有较高依恋不安全感的个体倾向于拥有更多 (其主观感知中) 高不安全感的朋友, 而这些朋友往往提供较少的安慰性支持信息。本文亦讨论了研究的现实意义。