The Relationship between Adult Attachment Style and Social Skills in Terms of the Four-Category Model of Attachment Style
Koju Tamaki, Junichi Takahashi

Abstract
In the present study, we examined the relationship between adult attachment style, with regard to the four-category model, and social skills among Japanese university students. Participants (N = 212, 110 men and 102 women) completed questionnaires on both attachment style and social skills. Correlation analyses showed significant negative correlations between certain attachment styles and social skills. Through a cluster analysis using attachment measures (combining two levels of self-representation with two levels of others-representation), we extracted four attachment styles (secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful). We compared the degree of social skills among these attachment styles, as well. Results showed that the dismissing and fearful styles were related to lower scores on many social skill subscales. These results indicate that the negative others-representation subscale mainly affected social skills scores. The present results contribute to existing knowledge on the relationship between attachment style (using the four-category model) and social skills.

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