Adult attachment profiles and correlates of relationship quality and emotional expression styles in Turkish married individuals

This study aimed to identify attachment patterns in married individuals and to examine the association of positive and negative relationship quality and emotional expression styles with core emotions: happiness, sadness, and anger. We examined adult attachment patterns utilizing a person-centered approach, latent profile analysis, in 413 married individuals with a mean age of 38.75 +/- 9.95 years. Latent profile analysis of attachment patterns revealed three profiles: secure, dismissive, and fearful attachment. Individuals classified in the secure profile reported the lowest negative relationship and the highest positive relationship quality scores, whereas those in the fearful profile reported the opposite pattern. Regarding emotional expression styles, secure profiles manifested positive and negative emotions in verbal expression; for negative emotions, dismissive profiles were more inclined to express through facial expressions and retaliation, whereas fearful profiles tended to express aggressively. Our findings contribute to understanding how attachment profiles differ in the experience of relationship quality and the expression of different emotions.