235 The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 organizations (Allen et al., 2018; Guarnieri et al., 2015). Future studies could further explore the level of effectiveness of childhood attachment mitigating the negative impact of IPV experience on interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes in adulthood. Limitations and Future Directions Although the present study adds important contributions to the literature on IPV victimization and attachment, several limitations must be acknowledged. First, the dichotomous question of IPV could not fully capture all of the complexity of IPV victimization experiences. Future research should consider other factors related to IPV, including severity of the violence, types of IPV, age of onset, frequency, and duration. Second, retrospective reporting of childhood attachment with the primary caregiver(s) may lead to bias, or distortion in the recall of traumatic events from family of origin. However, previous studies have shown that retrospective reports only have a small amount of bias and that it is not strong enough to invalidate the results for adverse childhood experiences (Hardt & Rutter, 2004). A growing body of literature has identified adult attachment as a risk factor of IPV (Doumas et al., 2008); here, we were not able to determine the causal relationship between adult attachment and IPV. We did conduct a path analysis using childhood attachment and adult attachment to predict IPV and self-esteem, but the model did not demonstrate a good fit. It is possible that attachment and IPV do not have a simple causal relationship; other childhood trauma experiences may contribute to the complexity of the IPV (Li et al., 2019). Finally, not knowing the types of attachment in childhood limited our exploration regarding the changes of attachment styles from childhood to adulthood. The cross-sectional design of assessing childhood attachment and adult attachment concurrently did not provide sufficient evidence to determine the cause and effect. Bowlby (1969) believed that there is a continuity between childhood attachment and adult attachment over the life course. An individual’s security in adult relationships may be a partial reflection of their experiences with primary caregivers in early childhood (Ammaniti et al., 2000). However, one of the common misconceptions about attachment theory is that attachment is always stable from infancy to adulthood (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). It is possible that adults’ attachment patterns would change if their relational experiences were disturbed by relational trauma such as IPV (West & George, 1999) or childhood trauma (Shen & Soloski, 2024), which partially explains that childhood attachment is not a significant moderator between IPV and adult attachment from our findings. Future research could conduct longitudinal studies to examine the changes of attachment and how childhood trauma and IPV influences attachment over time. Implications The findings of the present study provide insights that may inform clinical interventions for adult survivors who have experienced IPV to rebuild trusting interpersonal relationships and relationships with self. First, IPV experiences were significantly associated with anxious and avoidant adult attachment. During a traumatic experience, such as IPV, the attachment security system is activated, and survivors are in a surviving mode and tend to seek protection. Unfortunately, IPV involves power, control, and betrayal within an intimate relationship, which may damage internal working models of self and others if they stay for long enough (Levendosky et al., 2012). Thus, clinical interventions could focus on altering survivors’ negative internal working models to increase security within nonabusive close relationships. Close friends and family members could remain as a secure base for IPV survivors while they rebuild their personal and social lives that IPV have damaged. Additionally, therapeutic relationships could potentially serve as a secure base for survivors to explore their attachment behaviors. Survivors with avoidant attachment demonstrate deactivation attachment
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