According to both John Bowlby (1977) and Mary Ainsworth (1989), attachment behaviour can be seen throughout our lifetime — not just in childhood. Attachment theory also implies that patterns established in child–parent relationships tend to shape later adult romantic relationships and may account for why some people seem to avoid such relationships.
Based on the three attachment styles identified by Ainsworth et al. (1978) using the Strange Situation standardised observational technique, Hazan and Shaver (1987) explicitly applied attachment theory for the first time to adult romantic relationships. This study provided the impetus for a huge amount of adult-oriented attachment research. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this focused almost exclusively on people in marriage and other romantic relationships (both hetero- and homosexual).
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