The main purpose of this study is to identify the difference between attachment types and addiction tendencies according to demographic characteristics, the degree of difference in Internet addiction, Shopping addiction, and Relationship addiction acc...
The main purpose of this study is to identify the difference between attachment types and addiction tendencies according to demographic characteristics, the degree of difference in Internet addiction, Shopping addiction, and Relationship addiction according to each attachment type, and verify the correlation between each addiction tendency.
The subjects were 706 adult women from the Seoul and Kyunggi region. Measurements for Adult attachment types, Internet addiction, shopping addiction, and relationship addiction were used, along with consumption behavior for tobacco and alcohol. For analysis, descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA, and Correlation Analysis were employed.
The results of the study are as follows.
First, the difference between attachment types and addiction tendencies according to demographic characteristics of 706 adult women revealed that 176 (24.2%) were categorized as dependent types, 61 (8.6%) as anxiety types, and 474 (67.1%) as intimacy types. Attachment types according to age distribution showed that dependent and intimacy types were found in higher numbers in women in their 20's and 30's compared to women in their 40's and 50's. Conversely, anxiety types were found more frequently in women in their 40's and 50's compared to those in the 20's and 30's category. Results according to education level revealed that students or graduates of university and/or post-graduate program showed the highest number of anxiety type, whereas difference was minimal for dependency type and intimacy type compared to the other demographic groups.
Smoking according to attachment types showed that among a total of 90(12.7%) smokers, anxiety type showed the highest number, whereas dependent types, although moderately higher than intimate types showed lower numbers. Alcohol consumption according to attachment types revealed that anxiety types consumed alcohol more frequently than dependent or intimate types, however, no significant relationship between attachment types and the amount of consumption was found.
Reason for alcohol consumption according to attachment types revealed that "forming friendship" accounted for 65.5% and 69.8% for dependent types and intimate types, respectively, followed by "habitual consumption". For anxiety types, "stress" constituted 26.2%, showing a relatively high number.
Next, looking into whether there are differences in addiction tendencies according to attachment types among adult women, dependent types and intimate types, classified as stability attachment types showed significant negative correlation with Internet addiction, shopping addiction, and relationship addiction. Comparison between dependent types and intimate types further revealed that dependent types have a low correlation with addictive tendencies
Correlation analysis for each attachment types with their subordinate factors revealed that, although not on a significant level, dependent types showed positive correlation with subordinate factors for Internet addiction such as "loss of control for Internet usage", "compulsive thoughts or expectations", "shopping addiction", "relationship addiction", and "people addiction", differentiating it from intimacy types.
Lastly, correlation between each addiction revealed that "inability to cope with everyday life following Internet addiction", "loss of control", "compulsive thoughts or expectations", "shopping addiction", "relationship addiction", "love addiction", "sex addiction", and "people addiction" all shared a high level of correlation on a significant level, and the correlation between each subordinate factors for all addiction were significant within 0.1 significance level.
This study reveals that addiction tendencies according to attachment types do show significant differences, highlighting the importance of early attachment for adult women. Further, by verifying the relationship between each addiction tendencies, the study can prove useful for raising awareness of addiction, allowing women to identify their addiction tendencies and prevent undesirable outcomes. Moreover, the findings of this study can provide useful reference in a counseling setting, enhancing responsiveness for patients that are not aware of their own addiction tendencies