Attachment Theory in Collectivist Sample

This study investigates the cultural boundedness of attachment theory by comparing attachment patterns across two groups with shared cultural heritage but different current environments. The dataset (N=172) comprises two subsamples: Indians residing in India (n=100, collected in 2017) and first-generation Indian immigrants residing in the United States on student or work visas (n=72, collected in 2022). Both groups were born and raised in India, allowing for a controlled test of whether the current cultural environment affects the transfer of attachment from parental/peer domains to romantic domains. We hypothesize that in the collectivist Indian context, attachment transfer will be minimal due to structural incompatibility between parent-child and romantic caregiving roles. This project will test whether this pattern persists among first-generation immigrants or if exposure to an individualist context begins to shift these relational dynamics.