The Relationship Between Attachment Styles and Anxiety: A Meta-Analytic Study

Abstract

This study aims to systematically examine the relationship between attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) and various manifestations of anxiety (social, trait, existential, and clinical) following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines. Large-scale meta-analyses in the literature addressing the attachment-anxiety relationship have predominantly focused on social anxiety, while comprehensive analyses that holistically encompass different types of anxiety and also include Turkish primary studies have remained limited. To fill this gap, studies published between 2015 and 2025 that measured attachment dimensions with valid scales-the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures (ECR-RS), the Three-Dimensional Attachment Styles Scale, and the Attachment Styles in Interpersonal Relationships Scale-and reported a direct correlation coefficient (r) together with the sample size (N) were systematically screened, and those with data amenable to analysis were included. Data obtained from seven independent studies (total N = 3,464) were synthesized using the Fisher z-transformation and a random-effects model (DerSimonian-Laird). The findings indicated that attachment anxiety was, overall, more strongly associated with anxiety (r = .338, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.228, .440]) than was attachment avoidance (r = .279, 95% CI [.195, .360]); this pattern was consistent with attachment-based emotion regulation theory and with recent meta-analytic syntheses in the literature. The very high heterogeneity values (I2 = 85.3-91.9%) indicate that the findings should be interpreted as a conditional estimate sensitive to the type of anxiety. Owing to the limited number of studies (k = 7), the findings are presented as an expanding pilot synthesis rather than as a definitive meta-analytic conclusion.