Department of Psychology, Acadia University, Canada.
Pain. 2010 May;149(2):278-283. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2010.02.019. Epub 2010 Mar 5.
A growing body of research indicates that attachment insecurity is associated with pain-related catastrophizing. Attachment anxiety has consistently been found to be positively associated with pain catastrophizing. In contrast, the relationship between attachment avoidance and pain catastrophizing has been less consistent. The current study was designed to (a) determine whether anxiety accounts for unique variance in catastrophizing beyond that contributed by the overlapping constructs of self-esteem and neuroticism and (b) clarify the relationship between avoidance and catastrophizing by investigating this relationship when controlling for attachment anxiety. The final objective was to investigate whether attachment is also related to catastrophizing about the pain of significant others. A convenient sample of individuals currently in a romantic relationship (N=148) completed self-report measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance, neuroticism, self-esteem, pain catastrophizing, and significant other pain catastrophizing. Multiple regression analyses indicated that attachment anxiety accounted for unique variance in pain catastrophizing and each of its lower-order components (i.e., rumination, magnification, helplessness), beyond that accounted for by the personality variables. Attachment avoidance was negatively associated with the rumination component of catastrophizing, but this association was only found after controlling for attachment anxiety. The attachment dimensions were also associated with some components of significant other pain catastrophizing. Anxiety was positively associated with the helplessness component of significant other pain catastrophizing, and avoidance was negatively associated with the rumination and helplessness components of significant other pain catastrophizing. Future research directions regarding the social context of pain are discussed.
越来越多的研究表明，依恋不安全感与疼痛相关的灾难化有关。一直以来，焦虑与疼痛灾难化呈正相关。相比之下，回避与疼痛灾难化的关系则不太一致。本研究旨在：(a)确定焦虑是否在自我效能感和神经质等重叠结构之外，对灾难化产生独特的变异；(b)通过控制依恋焦虑来探讨回避与灾难化之间的关系，从而澄清两者之间的关系。最终目标是调查依恋是否也与对重要他人疼痛的灾难化有关。一个方便的恋爱关系中的个体样本（N=148）完成了依恋焦虑和回避、神经质、自尊、疼痛灾难化和重要他人疼痛灾难化的自我报告测量。多元回归分析表明，依恋焦虑在疼痛灾难化及其各个较低阶成分（即，沉思、放大、无助）中解释了独特的变异，超出了人格变量所解释的变异。依恋回避与灾难化的沉思成分呈负相关，但只有在控制依恋焦虑后才能发现这种关联。这些依恋维度也与重要他人疼痛灾难化的某些成分有关。焦虑与重要他人疼痛灾难化的无助成分呈正相关，回避与重要他人疼痛灾难化的沉思和无助成分呈负相关。讨论了关于疼痛的社会背景的未来研究方向。
