Love Anxiously or Avoidantly: The link between childhood trauma, personality characteristics, and intimate relationships in adulthood

Background: Exposure to childhood maltreatment may have a lasting negative footprint on trust in others, and subsequently on adult attachment and intimate relationships. Whether this leads to anxious or avoidant attachment may depend on one’s personality, which can be shaped by experiences of childhood abuse and neglect. Objective: The current study investigated the association between childhood maltreatment, adult attachment styles, and the quality of intimate relationships in adulthood. Additionally, the study examined whether personality characteristics mediated this association. Methods: The study included 1,948 adults aged 18-65 (n=383 individuals without current/lifetime psychopathology and 1565 with current/lifetime psychopathology). A mediation model was constructed to investigate whether personality characteristics (repeated assessments of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory) and (in)secure attachment styles (Experience of Close Relationships questionnaire-short) mediated the association between childhood maltreatment (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) and the quality of intimate relationships in adulthood (Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale). Results: Severity of childhood maltreatment was associated with insecure attachment styles and a lower quality of intimate relationships. In addition, the path model indicated that the association of childhood maltreatment and quality of intimate relationship was fully mediated by increased levels of neuroticism, reduced extraversion and agreeableness, and increased insecure attachment styles in individuals with current/lifetime psychopathology (β = -0.03, 95% CI = -0.07, 0.02) and individuals without (β = -0.03, 95% CI = -0.15, 0.07). Conclusion: A history of childhood maltreatment may have a negative impact on the quality of intimate relationships in adulthood by its enduring effects on personality characteristics and insecure attachment styles.