Brief Report: Priming Attachment Memories Affects Attachment States of Pre-adolescents

Priming or activating memories of (in)secure interactions with parents is expected to activate in-the-moment attachment feelings (aka state-like attachment, as compared to trait-like attachment). In this study, we tested whether priming secure and avoidant attachment memories affected state attachment security, anxiety, and avoidance and whether prime effects depended on trait attachment in 56 early adolescents (42.9% boys; 57.1% girls) aged 10–12 years (M = 10.75, SD = 0.61). Results showed that the primes affected secure and anxious state attachment, but not avoidant state attachment. Only one effect emerged after adjustment for multiple testing: secure state attachment decreased after the avoidant prime. Trait attachment did not moderate the prime effects on state attachment. Although effects are subtle, attachment states do seem to change depending on experimentally activated attachment memories.