Attachment Styles, Gender and Parental Problem Drinking

Bartholomew's (1990) four-category typology of adult attachment styles was compared with Hazan more females than males were fearful avoidants. Third, a hypothesis advanced by Latty-Mann & Davis (1988) was confirmed. Adult children of alcoholics scored high on both avoidant and anxious-ambivalent scales of Hazan & Shaver's measure, and fell predominantly into Bartholomew's fearful-avoidant category, suggesting that at least some fearful adults are grown-up versions of the `disorganized, disoriented' children identified by Crittenden (1988) and by Main & Solomon (1990). These children are more common in families troubled by parental alcoholism, depression or abuse.