Computers in Human Behavior 38 (2014) 208212

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Computers in Human Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Changes in technology use and adult attachment orientation from 2002

to 2012 q
William J. Chopik , Christopher Peterson
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We have lived in an age of ever-increasing connection this past decade. Although technology and online
Available online 1 July 2014 social networking may not have increased psychological closeness, as some researchers suggest, it may
have increased the perceived availability of other people in our social networks. The current study
Keywords: measures changes in comfort with closeness (attachment avoidance) and perceived availability of others
Attachment (attachment anxiety) in a large Internet sample (N = 123,554) from 2002 to 2012. Attachment anxiety
Technology decreased from 2002 to 2012 and attachment avoidance exhibited no changes over the same time period.
Cohort changes
Further, these decreases were primarily driven by younger adults, presumably due to their heavy
Media
Anxiety
technology use. Attachment anxiety was negatively associated with mobile phone subscription rates
and the number of Facebook users over this time period. Results from the current study suggest that
the perceived availability of others has been increasing over timeperhaps because technology has
increased the accessibility of close others.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction psychological closeness, it may have increased the perceived

We have lived in an age of ever-increasing connection this past
decade. Cell phones and social networking sites have made individ-
uals more accessible to each other than ever before. Time spent
exposed to new media (e.g., cell phones, texting, video games,
TV, Internet) among children has exploded from nearly 10 h per
week in the 1930s to 11 h per day by the 2000s (Gutnick, Robb,
Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2011). Most online social networks (e.g., Friend-
ster (2002), Myspace (2003), Facebook (2004), and Twitter (2006))
have also started in the past ten years (Lapinski, 2006). Almost half of
American Internet users now have at least one online social prole
(Arbitron, 2010). According to one report, time spent social network-
ing is up 82% from previous years as of 2009 (Whitney, 2010).
Despite these trends, Konrath (2012) suggests that recent gen-
erations have been experiencing an empathy paradox, in which
technology has brought people closer together than ever before,
but that this increase in technological closeness has not been
accompanied by a sense of psychological closeness. Although
technology and online social networking may not have increased
q
The author was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellowship.
Corresponding author. Address: Department of Psychology, University of
Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States. Tel.: +1
(734) 763 5146; fax: +1 (734) 647 9440.
E-mail address: chopik@umich.edu (W.J. Chopik).
availability of other people in our social networks. Increases in this
perceived availability could have large implications for how indi-
viduals interact with others on- and ofine, but few studies have
examined changes in psychological characteristics conceptually
related to technology use over this timeframe. Specically, very
little is known about how individuals approach toward close
relationships (i.e., their attachment orientation) is related to this
recent increase in technology usage. The current study measures
changes in comfort with closeness (attachment avoidance) and
perceived availability of others (attachment anxiety) in a large
Internet sample from 2002 to 2012.
1.1. Societal-level changes in attachment orientation
An individuals attachment orientation is generally conceptual-
ized as their position on two conceptually distinct dimensions:
anxiety and avoidance (Fraley & Waller, 1998). Attachment-related
anxiety reects hyperactivation of the attachment system and
preoccupation with the availability of close others (Mikulincer,
Gillath, & Shaver, 2002). For instance, individuals with higher anx-
iety scores exhibit excessive reassurance-seeking and hypervigi-
lance to signs of rejection and abandonment (Fraley, Niedenthal,
Marks, Brumbaugh, & Vicary, 2006; Shaver, Schachner, &
Mikulincer, 2005). The avoidance dimension is characterized by
chronic attempts to inhibit attachment-system activation in an
effort to minimize expressions of distress (Edelstein & Shaver,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.031
0747-5632/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W.J. Chopik, C. Peterson / Computers in Human Behavior 38 (2014) 208212
2004; Fraley, Davis, & Shaver, 1998). For instance, individuals with
higher avoidance scores generally tend to dislike intimacy and are
less likely to provide emotional support for romantic partners
(Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998; Li & Chan, 2012). Individuals
reporting low scores on both dimensions are generally considered
secure (or high on attachment security).
Why might one expect attachment orientations to be changing
in recent years? Research comparing the personality traits of dif-
ferent cohorts (e.g., Twenge, 2006) suggests that social/cultural
conditions of a particular time period can shape an individuals
attachment orientation. One unique feature of the last decade is
the rapid increase in the use of technology. Cell phones and online
social networking sites presumably make it easier to reach out and
check on the availability of close others (Sheldon, Abad, & Hinsch,
2011). Without a means of communicating or checking in easily,
individuals may be concerned about the availability of the people
on whom they depend. Therefore, technology that enables individ-
uals to quickly contact each other (i.e., cell phones, texting, social
networking sites) may afford individuals a sense of security know-
ing that close others are more readily available and therefore might
decrease attachment anxiety. In support of this hypothesis,
Sheldon and colleagues (2011) discovered that higher Facebook
usage is associated with greater feelings of satisfaction with the
connection to ones social network. Further, individuals who felt
more disconnected after being deprived of Facebook access for a
48-h period responded with greater usage rates of social media
during a second, unconstrained 48-h period. Electronic communi-
cation is also associated with greater feelings of availability among
long-distance couples (Boneva, Kraut, & Frohlich, 2001; Dainton &
Aylor, 2002; Stephen, 1986) and is associated with lower relational
uncertainty (i.e., doubts about the status of or involvement in a
relationship; Jin & Pea, 2010). Further, mobile phone experiments
suggest that texting supportive messages has the potential to boost
attachment security (Otway, Carnelley, & Rowe, 2013). Greater
social networking use is also associated with greater feelings of
intimacy and support among individuals high in attachment anxi-
ety, suggesting that social networking may be associated with
lower concerns about the availability of close others (Morey,
Gentzler, Creasy, Oberhauser, & Westerman, 2013).
Given that technology use may provide individuals with a sense
of security with respect to the availability of close others by increas-
ing their perceived accessibility, attachment anxiety may have been
decreasing over the past decadecoinciding with increases in tech-
nology use. Further, decreases in anxiety should be particularly pro-
nounced among younger adults, due to the heavy usage of
technology and social networking sites by this group. Thus, attach-
ment anxiety should be lowest in years when technology use was
at its highest. Based on Konrath (2012)s observation that individu-
als have not experienced an increase in psychological closeness in
the past decade, individuals should not be changing with respect
to their comfort with closeness (attachment avoidance) over this
time period. In the current study, we examined changes in attach-
ment anxiety and avoidance from 2002 to 2012 using a large Inter-
net sample. This large sample allowed us to test the hypothesis that
attachment anxiety had been decreasing over the past decade. We
also utilized publicly accessible data on the number of mobile phone
subscriptions and Facebook users (as a measure of social networking
site usage) to test the hypothesis that higher technology usage was
associated with lower attachment anxiety.
2. Method
2.1. Participants and procedure
Participants were 123,554 adult users, ranging in age from 18 to
65+ (73.5% female), from an Internet site (authentichappiness.com)
209
who participated between September 2002 and March 2012. The
website is supported by researchers from the University of Penn-
sylvania. Participants self-reported their age by selecting one of
seven discrete age groups (i.e., 1820 years old, 2124, 2534,
3544, 4554, 5564, 65+; Mdnage category = 2534 years old). The
majority of the sample (70.1%) had at least a bachelors degree.
Information on respondent-level ethnicity, sexual orientation,
and relationship status was unavailable. All users were from the
United States. Participants created a prole on authentichappi-
ness.com and were provided with several questionnaires related
to the eld of positive psychology. Participation was voluntary
and participants received feedback on their attachment orientation
following completion. Duplicate responses were ltered out prior
to data analysis and reporting. Use of these questionnaires for
online data collection has been approved by the University of
Pennsylvania Institutional Review Board.
2.2. Adult attachment
The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Inventory (ECR-
R; Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000) was used to assess attachment
anxiety and avoidance. The 18-item avoidance subscale (a = .91)
reects an individuals discomfort with closeness and intimacy.
The 18-item anxiety subscale (a = .90) reects an individuals con-
cern about abandonment and the perceived availability of close
others. Sample items include I dont feel comfortable opening up
to romantic partners (avoidance), and I often worry that my part-
ner doesnt really love me (anxiety). Participants rated the extent
to which they agreed with each statement, using a 7-point Likert
scale, ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly). Items
were averaged to create subscales for avoidance (M = 2.87,
SD = 1.25) and anxiety (M = 3.29, SD = 1.42). The correlation
between anxiety and avoidance was .49 (p < .001), which is consis-
tent with previous research using the ECR-R.
2.3. Mobile phone subscriptions
The annual number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 peo-
ple in the US from 2002 to 2012 was retrieved from The World
Banks open database of social indicators (World Bank., 2014).
The number of mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people has
risen dramatically from 2002 to 2012 (2002: 49 subscriptions/
100, 2007: 82 subscriptions/100, 2012: 95 subscriptions/100).
2.4. Use of social networking sites
The annual number of Facebook users was used as a proxy for
social networking site use as it is one of the most popular social
networking sites and has existed for most of the time period of
the current study. The number of Facebook users per year was only
available from 2004 (when the site launched) until 2012
(Facebook.com., 2013). The number of Facebook users has risen
dramatically from 2004 to 2012 (2004: 1 million users, 2007:
100 million users, 2012: 1.1 billion users).
3. Results
3.1. Is attachment anxiety declining from 2002 to 2012?
To formally model the associations between year and the
attachment dimensions, we conducted multiple regression analy-
ses predicting anxiety and avoidance from year of survey comple-
tion while controlling for participant age, gender, and attachment
orientation (e.g., when predicting anxiety, avoidance was
controlled for). To assess whether decreases in anxiety were being
210 W.J. Chopik, C. Peterson / Computers in Human Behavior 38 (2014) 208212

driven by younger adults, an interaction between age and year was 3.50
also included in the regression analyses.
Regression results are presented in Table 1. As hypothesized,
3.45
year was negatively associated with attachment anxiety such that

Attachment Anxiety
anxiety decreased from 2002 to 2012. Younger adults and women
were higher in anxiety, replicating previous research (Chopik, 3.40
Edelstein, & Fraley, 2013; Del Giudice, 2011). The year  age inter-
action emerged as a signicant predictor of anxiety. To decompose 3.35
the signicant year  age interaction, we conducted separate
regression analyses predicting attachment anxiety from year, gen-
der, and avoidance among younger (34 years old and younger) and 3.30
older adults (35 years old and older). As expected, year was nega-
tively associated with anxiety among younger individuals 3.25
(b = .01, p < .001), but not so among individuals over the age of 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
35 (b = .004, p = .12). As seen in Fig. 1, attachment anxiety Year
decreased from 2002 to 2012 among younger adults (2002 vs.
Fig. 1. Changes in attachment anxiety among younger adults from 2002 to 2012.
2012: d = .14).
Identical regression analyses were also conducted for attach-
ment avoidance (controlling for anxiety). As expected, year and 4. Discussion
the interaction between year and age were not signicant predic-
tors of avoidance. Older adults and men were higher in avoidance, The current study demonstrates that attachment anxiety has
replicating previous research (Chopik et al., 2013; Del Giudice, been decreasing at a societal-level in the last decade. We examined
2011). associations between year and attachment orientation in a sample
of 123,554 participants from 2002 to 2012. Moreover, we examined
the association between the number of mobile phone subscriptions
3.2. Is attachment anxiety related to rates of mobile phone
and Facebook users and attachment orientation over this same time
subscriptions and social networking site usage?
period. Attachment anxiety decreased over this time period, partic-
ularly among younger adultsa population that uses technology at a
To examine whether the mobile phone and Facebook usage in
high rate. Further, in the years during which mobile phone subscrip-
a particular year was associated with the attachment dimen-
tions and Facebook users were at their highest, participants reported
sions, we created two separate multilevel random-coefcient
lower attachment anxiety. The current study is the rst of its kind to
models using STATA (2013). Respondents were nested within a
examine societal-level changes in attachment orientation over this
calendar year (20022012). Participant age, gender, annual
time period. Decreases in attachment anxiety among younger adults
mobile phone subscriptions (Model 1), and annual number of
are consistent with the hypothesis that increased technology use is
Facebook users (Model 2) were treated as predictors of respon-
associated with a perceived availability of close others. No changes
dent-level scores of attachment anxiety and avoidance. As in
in attachment avoidance over time were found, consistent with
our regression analyses, each model controlled for attachment
Konraths (2012) observation that technology has not increased a
orientation when appropriate (e.g., when predicting anxiety,
sense of psychological closeness.
avoidance was controlled for). The effects of age, gender, and
These decreases in anxiety are also consistent with previous
attachment orientation in both models were identical to those
research documenting the proximityenhancing effects of tech-
reported in the regression analyses. In Model 1, the number of
nology (Morey et al., 2013; Sheldon et al., 2011). Individuals high
mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people was associated with
in attachment anxiety primarily worry about the availability of
lower attachment anxiety, b = 0.001, b = 0.02, 95% condence
close others. However, technology enhances the perceived avail-
interval = [ 0.002, 0.001], SE = 0.0003, Z = 4.58, p < .001. The
ability of others, perhaps reducing these concerns and worries.
number of mobile phone subscriptions was unrelated to attach-
Attachment anxiety has generally decreased in the past decade
ment avoidance, p = .31. In Model 2, the number of Facebook
coinciding with a dramatic increase in technology usage.
users was also associated with lower attachment anxiety,
However, greater technology use may not be universally bene-
b = 4.45  10 11, b = 0.02, 95% condence interval = [ 7.81 
cial for people, particularly those high in attachment anxiety.
10 11, 1.08  10 11], SE = 1.72  10 11, Z = 2.59, p = .01. The
Recent research suggests that greater usage of online social net-
number of Facebook users was unrelated to attachment avoid-
working is associated with more social comparisons (Chou &
ance, p = .61.

Table 1
Regressions predicting attachment dimensions from year, age, and gender.

Anxiety Avoidance
B SE (B) b t B SE (B) b t
Year .005 .001 .01 4.04** .001 .001 .002 .63
Age .10 .002 .11 41.95** .07 .002 .09 33.52**
Gender .04 .004 .02 9.80** .01 .004 .01 2.64**
Avoidance/Anxiety .56 .003 .49 201.14** .44 .002 .50 201.14**
Year  Age .003 .001 .01 3.33** .001 .001 .002 .85

Note. N = 123,554; Equation for anxiety, F (5, 123,548) = 8355.90, R = .50, p < .001; Equation for avoidance, F (5, 123,548) = 8164.84, R = .50, p < .001; Gender: 1 = men,
1 = women.
**
p < .01.
 W.J. Chopik, C. Peterson / Computers in Human Behavior 38 (2014) 208212
Edge, 2012; Haferkamp & Krmer, 2011) and lower subjective
well-being (Kross et al., 2013). Further, individuals high in attach-
ment anxiety are more likely to be the recipient of a technology-
mediated break-up with a romantic partner (Weisskirch & Delevi,
2013). This nding suggests that, although technology may afford
a sense of enhanced accessibility to other people, it does not nec-
essarily translate to more fullling relationships. These ndings
then leave open the question: as technology is becoming increas-
ingly integral in peoples lives and relationships, what are the
psychological functions that these media are serving (Sheldon
et al., 2011)? Future research can examine how these recent
changes in attachment anxiety translate to how individuals inter-
act with one another and maintain relationships on- and ofine.
Despite the many strengths of the current study, some limita-
tions still exist. First, our large Internet sample is a convenience
sample comprised of volunteers. Previous studies have shown that
Internet-based samples can provide useful and valid data for psy-
chological research (Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003).
Moreover, such samples are often more diverse than traditional
undergraduate samples with respect to age, ethnicity, nationality,
relationship status, and income (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, &
John, 2004). However, Internet use may have become more ubiqui-
tous from 2002 to 2012, and thus the population using the Internet
in 2002 may be very different in some special way than the popu-
lation using the Internet in 2012. Researchers have examined
whether Internet respondents differ with respect to psychological
constructs compared to more traditional student samples, older
individuals, and those less technologically skilled and found that
rarely do they differ (Gosling et al., 2004; Srivastava et al., 2003).
Worth noting is that greater familiarity and use of the Internet,
mobile phones, and social networking sites over time would also
be consistent with our hypotheses: that individuals are relying
on these media at an ever-increasing rate and this reliance is lead-
ing to psychological changes in the broader population. Neverthe-
less, the ndings from the current study should be interpreted with
caution until they are replicated in a more representative sample.
Second, we were not able to assess the frequency of technology
use among our participants as the data collection website is pri-
marily used for scale development and assessment. In a study
examining attachment orientation and the frequency of technology
use, Morey and colleagues (2013) found that individuals high in
anxiety were just as likely to use social networking sites and
texting as their less anxious counterparts. However, despite the
lack of attachment-related differences in frequency of use, individ-
uals high in anxiety could be affected by technology in ways that
individuals low in anxiety are not. The motivations underlying
their use could also be different among individuals high or low
in attachment anxiety. Future experimental work can manipulate
the frequency, depth, and duration of technology-mediated com-
munication to see if technology use causes decreases in attach-
ment anxiety according to the mechanisms we are proposing
(e.g., by increasing the perceived availability of others).
Third, the current study was correlational in nature and it is
impossible to know with certainty what has been causing these
decreases in attachment anxiety from 2002 to 2012. Within each
year, the median age, level of education, and gender distribution
of the sample were largely consistent, making it unlikely that these
changes can be attributed to shifts in these demographic factors.
We also controlled for these variables in our analyses. The few
studies that have manipulated the use of mobile messaging or
social networking site usage generally nd that technology has
the potential to decrease attachment anxiety (Kross et al., 2013;
Otway et al., 2013; Sheldon et al., 2011). Nevertheless, the current
study is merely correlational and thus, opens the patterns in data
up to alternative explanations. Future research can manipulate
technology usage and measure the psychological effect that this
211
has on individuals, particularly to see if it decreases attachment
anxiety.
Fourth, the results of the current study are somewhat inconsis-
tent with other research examining generational changes in psy-
chological characteristics. In particular, Twenge (2000) found that
American college students have been increasing in (generalized)
anxiety from 1952 to 1993. Twenge suggests that the increase in
generalized anxiety over this time period primarily results from
dramatic increases in overall societal threat (e.g., crime rates)
and decreases in the quality of social relationships (e.g., using
divorce rates as a proxy). We believe the ndings from the current
study are unique in two ways. First, although attachment anxiety is
moderately intercorrelated with neuroticism (Noftle & Shaver,
2006), attachment anxiety is more closely related to anxiety about
ones social network and the availability of close others rather than
a more general form of anxiety (and often predicts relationship
outcomes over-and-above the contributions of neuroticism). Thus,
examining anxiety that is domain-specic (i.e., specic to relation-
ships) may lead to different ndings when examining change over
time than anxiety measured more globally. Further, previous
research has linked technology usage to more positive feelings
about the availability of close others, particularly among individu-
als high in attachment anxiety (Morey et al., 2013; Sheldon et al.,
2011). Second, Twenges investigation did not include measures
of attachment anxiety or the frequency of technology use by
college students over this time period. The data from her meta-
analysis was also collected during a time that preceded the found-
ing of several social networking sites and the dramatic increases in
Internet usage, which was the focus of the current study (e.g., par-
ticularly in the past decade). It is also possible that other forms of
technology (e.g., digital planners, calendars, etc.) in the last ten
years have decreased other domain-specic features of anxiety or
has led to a tailing off of the increases in anxiety observed among
younger populations. Future research can examine the temporal
course of both general anxiety and attachment anxiety over this
time period to see how technology interacts with an individuals
psychological characteristics to alter his or her social behavior.
Despite these limitations, the current study nds support for
the hypothesis that attachment anxiety has been decreasing over
the past ten years, particularly during years with high numbers
of mobile phone subscriptions and Facebook users. This nding
provides an important rst step in examining how the increase
in technology use in recent years is affecting individuals. Examin-
ing how individuals are inuenced by their experiences with tech-
nology is an exciting avenue for future research (Morey et al.,
2013). Nevertheless, results from the current study suggest that
the perceived availability of others has been increasing over
timeperhaps because technology has increased their
accessibility.
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