Abstract Introduction Attachment theory represents a well-known framework to understand emotional regulation in close relationships. Insecure attachment styles utilize distinct strategies to manage intimacy and perceived threats: avoidance is characterized by deactivating strategies (suppressing emotional closeness to maintain autonomy), while anxiety involves hyperactivating strategies (amplifying distress to secure reassurance). This theoretical dichotomy is well-reflected in sexual desire research, which consistently links avoidance to lower, and anxiety to higher, sexual desire. However, these studies often treat sexual desire as a monolithic construct or aggregate different contexts. This overlooks a critical theoretical ambiguity, as it remains unclear whether insecure attachment impacts general libido or functions as a specific relational mechanism. Objective This study aims to deconstruct these effects by testing the hypothesis of context specificity in females. We hypothesized that the impact of attachment avoidance and anxiety is specific to partner-related desire and does not extend to autoerotic desire. Methods A sample of 4370 premenopausal females (mean age = 22.01; range 18-48) completed a cross-sectional online survey. The protocol included measures of adult attachment (Experiences in Close Relationships - Revised) and both partnered and autoerotic sexual desire (Sexual Desire Inventory – 2). To test for context-specificity, two separate Response Surface Analysis (RSA) models were conducted. The first model tested the linear, quadratic, and interactive effects of attachment anxiety and avoidance on partnered desire, while the second model tested the same effects on autoerotic desire. Results The RSA results revealed a clear pattern of context-specificity. The model for partnered desire was highly significant (R2 = 0.106, p .001). Model comparison selected a linear interaction model (IA) as the most parsimonious (AICc = 32421.11). Robust bootstrapped coefficients for this model showed that avoidance was a strong negative predictor (b = −4.79, 95% CI -5.30, -4.28) and anxiety was a positive predictor (b = 1.42, 95% CI 1.09, 1.75). A significant, although smaller, interaction effect was also found (b = 0.54, 95% CI 0.01, 1.07), while quadratic terms were not significant. In sharp contrast, the model for autoerotic desire was not significant (R2 = 0.001, p = .315), with neither attachment dimension showing any predictive effect. Conclusions The results offer strong statistical support for this divergent pattern, supporting the hypothesis that attachment's effect on sexual desire is specific to partnered sexuality rather than being universal. Attachment avoidance is not associated with a "low general libido" but with a selective suppression of desire towards the partner, aligning with defensive strategies to keep emotional distance. In contrast, attachment anxiety is not connected to a "high general libido" but is related to a selective intensification of desire for a partner, reinforcing its role as a strategy to seek closeness and reassurance. Disclosure No
Mollaioli et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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