Factors associated with fear of intimacy among a representative sample of the Lebanese population: The role of depression, social phobia, self-esteem, intimate partner violence, attachment, and maladaptive schemas

Perspect Psychiatr Care. 2020 Jul;56(3):486-494. doi: 10.1111/ppc.12438. Epub 2019 Sep 23.

Abstract

Purpose: To assess fear of intimacy (FOI) in the Lebanese population, and its correlates such as depression, social phobia, self-esteem, attachment, and maladaptive schemas.

Design/methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted between November 2017 and May 2018, enrolled 707 community-dwelling participants.

Results: Higher FOI scores were associated with an increase in the defectiveness schema (β = 0.483), social phobia score (β = 0.16), mistrust schema (β = 0.519), vulnerability schema (β = 0.482), emotional deprivation schema (β = 0.548), attachment style D (dismissing) (β = 0.913) and failure schema, whereas lower FOI was significantly associated with an increase in the entitlement schema (β = -0.362), insufficient schema (β = -0.377), and the self-esteem score (β = -0.288).

Practice implications: Implementing educational programs are needed to enable persons to develop healthy intimate relationships, taking into account attachment styles and inappropriate early schemas.

Keywords: attachment style; depression; early maladaptive schemas; fear; intimacy.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological*
  • Adult
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Depression / psychology*
  • Fear*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Intimate Partner Violence / psychology*
  • Lebanon
  • Male
  • Object Attachment*
  • Phobia, Social / psychology*
  • Self Concept
  • Surveys and Questionnaires