api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: yaml
dataset:
  id: 2732
  slug: attachment-styles
  title: Attachment Styles
  description: Adult attachment styles derived from early caregiver relationships.
  summary: The attachment categories used in adult attachment research, following the Bowlby–Ainsworth tradition, each with a short behavioral description and an approximate prevalence. Earned secure is included as the commonly cited route from insecure early experience to secure functioning.
  use_when:
    - You need standard names and plain-language descriptions for relationship-pattern vocabulary.
    - A question about attachment theory should be grounded in the usual four categories rather than improvised labels.
  caveats:
    - The prevalence figures are approximate, drawn from differing samples, and as listed they add up to more than 100%. Read each as a rough magnitude, not as a partition of the population.
    - These categories describe tendencies in close relationships and are not clinical diagnoses.
  related:
    - stages-of-development
    - defense-mechanisms
  entry_count: 5
  fields:
    - section: data
      field: style
      type: string
      example: Secure
    - section: data
      field: description
      type: string
      example: Comfortable with intimacy and autonomy. Seeks s…
    - section: data
      field: prevalence
      type: string
      example: ~56% of adults
  category: Psychology
  category_slug: psychology
  tags: psychology,attachment,relationships,development
  view_count: 40
  created_at: 1793403093
  updated_at: 1793403093
data:
  - style: Secure
    description: Comfortable with intimacy and autonomy. Seeks support without excessive worry.
    prevalence: ~56% of adults
  - style: Anxious (Preoccupied)
    description: High anxiety about relationships. Seeks reassurance and fears abandonment.
    prevalence: ~20% of adults
  - style: Avoidant (Dismissive)
    description: Values independence. Dismisses the importance of close relationships.
    prevalence: ~25% of adults
  - style: Fearful-Avoidant (Disorganized)
    description: Desires closeness but fears it. Conflicting approach and avoidance behaviors.
    prevalence: ~4% of adults
  - style: Earned Secure
    description: Adults whose early experiences were insecure but who function securely, often through later stable relationships or therapy and a coherent account of their history.
    prevalence: Not reliably estimated