Intimidade e apego no namoro: implicações de estudos de caso para prevenção à violência

Abstract

Experiences of secure attachment in childhood can impact life intimacy seeking behaviors,\xa0consisting\xa0of one of the protective factors for the quality of love relationships. This study, based on attachment theory, aimed to examine intimacy experiences in dating relationships. A\xa0multiple cases\xa0study was conducted with\xa0semi-structured interviews with three young people, two women and one man, aged\xa0between 16 and 23 years old. The results point to singularities in the intimacy experience, with high levels of intimacy associated with the exchange of social support between the partners and sensitivity to the needs of the other, and levels of threatened intimacy associated with the\xa0avoidance\xa0of seeking support from the partner and negative resolution strategies of conflicts. Results corroborate\xa0the attachment theory, according to which availability and accessibility of the partner are the central way to promote emotional closeness in love relationships. We concluded that preventive actions should address the receptivity and accessibility to the partner, help seeking and help giving skills, emotional regulation skills in conflict management and the utilization of internal, partner’s and contextual resources to attribute new meaning to parental emotional legacy that sustains avoidance and anxiety in intimate relations. Keywords: Attachment, intimate partner violence, interpersonal relationship, intimacy, marital quality.