The Love Test Results - Attachment Style

Love Test Findings
Attachment Style

Hazan and Shafer report no gender differences in attachment style, so I thought I'd check for gender differences in attachment style in the Love Test sample.

There do appear to be gender differences in attachment style in the Love Test sample (Chi square (2) = 27.2, P < .001). Based of the percent of people who chose each attachment style we would expect that if there were no difference between males and females in their choice of attachment styles, we would find that for each gender:

approxomately 43.2% would choose secure,

approxomately 34.5% would choose avoidant, and

approxomately 22.2% would choose anxious/ambivalent.

However, if we look at the percent of people falling into each category for each gender:

Females: 45.1% of females selected secure (more than the 43.2% we expected),; 37.9% of females selected avoidant (more than the 34.5% we expected), and; 16.9% of females selected anxious/ambivalent (fewer than the 22.2% we expected).
Males: 41.6% of males selected secure (fewer than the 43.2% we expected),; 31.7% of males selected avoidant (fewer than the 34.5% we expected), and; 26.7% of males selected anxious/ambivalent (more than the 22.2% we expected).

Attachment Style Female Male Total

Secure 45.1% 41.6% 43.2%

Avoidant 37.9% 31.7% 34.5%

Anxious/Ambivalent 16.9% 26.7% 22.2%

Total 100% 100% 100%

N 891 1038 1929

Attachment Style	Female	Male	Total
Secure	45.1%	41.6%	43.2%
Avoidant	37.9%	31.7%	34.5%
Anxious/Ambivalent	16.9%	26.7%	22.2%
Total	100%	100%	100%
N	891	1038	1929

If there were no gender differences in attachment style we would also expect that the proportion of males and females within each attachment style would be consistant with the proportion of males and females in the sample which was:

46.2% female, and
53.8% male.

However if we look at the proportion of males and females within each attachment style:

Secure: 48.2% Females (more than the 46.2% we expected), and; 51.8% Males (less than the 53.8% we expected).
Avoidant: 50.7% Females (more than the 46.2% we expected), and; 49.3% Males (less than the 53.8% we expected).
Anxious/Ambivalent: 35.3% females (less than the 46.2% we expected), and; 64.7% males (more than the 53.8% we expected).

Attachment Style	Female	Male	Percent	N
Secure	48.2%	51.8%	100%	834
Avoidant	50.7%	49.3%	100%	667
Anxious/Ambivalent	35.3%	64.7%	100%	428
Total	46.2%	53.8%	100%	1929

Overall, there tended to be more females who selected the secure and/or the avoidant attachment styles than would be expected by chance and more males who selected the anxious/ambivalent attachment style than would be expected by chance.

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