A Serial Mediation Model of Insecure Attachment and Psychological Distress: The Role of Dispositional Shame and Shame-Coping Styles

Shame is an intense, difficult to regulate, self-conscious emotion that predicts aspects of poor psychological functioning and is also strongly related to early relationships. Attachment insecurities, which constitute non-specific risk factors for psychological maladjustment, have been associated with an individual’s tendency to experience shame. In this study, we sought to examine the serial mediating roles of dispositional shame and shame-coping styles (i.e., attack other, attack self, withdrawal and avoidance) in the association between anxious and avoidant attachment, and psychological distress. Using a cross-sectional design, self-reported data were collected. The study sample included 978 respondents (57% female) with a mean age of 32.17 ± 13.48 years. The results of the path analysis indicated that both attachment dimensions were sequentially associated with dispositional shame and then with the attack self shame-coping style, which was, in turn, positively related to psychological distress. Further, attachment insecurities were sequentially associated with dispositional shame and then with the avoidance shame-coping style, which was, in turn, negatively related to psychological distress. The model was gender invariant, suggesting that the serial mediation worked in a similar way for men and women. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.