Is Virginia for Lovers? Geographic variation in adult attachment orientation

People often use relationships to characterize and describe places. Yet, little research examines whether people’s relationships and relational style vary across geography. The current study examined geographic variation in adult attachment orientation in a sample of 127,070 adults from the 50 United States. The states that were highest in attachment anxiety tended to be in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast region of the United States. The states that were highest in attachment avoidance tended to be in the frontier region of the United States. State-level avoidance was related to state-level indicators of relationship status, social networks, and volunteering behavior. The findings are discussed in the context of the mechanisms that may give rise to regional variation in relational behavior.

人们常常运用人际关系来表征和描述地域特征。然而，关于人们的人际关系及其交往风格是否因地域而异的研究却寥寥无几。本研究针对来自美国50个州的127,070名成年人的样本，考察了成年人的依恋取向在地理上的差异性。那些依恋焦虑程度较高的州，往往位于美国的中大西洋和东北部地区；而依恋回避程度较高的州，则多分布于美国的边疆地区。州级层面的回避行为与州级层面的关系状态、社会网络以及志愿服务行为指标相关。研究结果在探讨可能引发区域间交往行为差异的机制中进行讨论。