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Attachment Style Test: Secure, Anxious Or Avoidant?

Twenty-four statements measure your relationship anxiety and comfort with closeness to reveal your attachment style: secure, anxious, dismissive-avoidant or fearful-avoidant.

  • 24 questions
  • About 4 min
  • Free, no sign-up
  • Based on adult attachment theory (anxiety and avoidance dimensions)

24 questions, about 4 min

Think about how you generally feel in close romantic relationships, not just your current one. If you have not had a relationship, think about close friendships.

24 statements on two scales: anxiety about the relationship, and comfort with closeness. Together they place you in one of four attachment styles.

What This Test Measures

Your attachment style describes how you tend to feel and behave in close relationships: how much you worry about being abandoned, and how comfortable you are with closeness and depending on someone. Researchers measure two dimensions:

  • Attachment anxiety: worry about rejection, abandonment and whether you are truly loved.
  • Attachment avoidance: discomfort with closeness, emotional intimacy and depending on others.

Your position on both creates four styles.

Low avoidance (comfortable with closeness)High avoidance (uneasy with closeness)
Low anxiety (confident)SecureDismissive-avoidant
High anxiety (worried)Anxious (preoccupied)Fearful-avoidant

How The Test Works And How It Is Scored

You rate 24 statements, 12 for each dimension, from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”. On each dimension, half the statements point each way. For example, “I often worry that my partner does not really love me” moves you toward Anxious, and “I feel secure that my partner will stay with me” moves you toward Confident.

Each answer counts from minus two to plus two. Each dimension becomes a position from 0% to 100%, and the side above 50% on each decides your style. Your result shows exactly where you sit on both scales.

Sample statement (Avoidance): “I pull away when a partner tries to get emotionally close.” Strong agreement moves you toward Avoidant.

The statements were written by PrismaTest. They measure the same two dimensions as research tools such as the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire, but they are not copied from it.

The Model Behind It

Attachment theory began with British psychiatrist John Bowlby in the 1950s and 1960s. He argued that infants have an inborn need to stay close to caregivers for safety. American-Canadian psychologist Mary Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation” studies in the 1970s identified secure, anxious and avoidant patterns in how babies reacted when separated from and reunited with their mothers.

In 1987, Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver showed that adults show similar patterns in romantic relationships. In 1991, Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz proposed the four-category model used here, which splits avoidance into dismissive and fearful forms. In 1998, Kelly Brennan, Catherine Clark and Phillip Shaver developed the Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire, which measures the anxiety and avoidance dimensions and is still widely used.

What The Research Says

  • Attachment is a spectrum. Most researchers now see anxiety and avoidance as continuous scales rather than four boxes.
  • Secure is the most common style, reported by roughly half to 60% of adults in many studies.
  • Styles can change. Supportive relationships, life experiences and therapy can move people toward security, sometimes called “earned security”.
  • Attachment predicts relationship outcomes. Higher anxiety and avoidance are linked with lower relationship satisfaction, though couples can thrive with awareness and good communication.

All Possible Results

Each style has a full guide with signs, causes and how it shows up in love. Start with the overview of all four attachment styles, or see how the styles combine in our attachment compatibility chart.

Secure Attachment

Comfortable with closeness and confident in love. Communicates needs and handles conflict calmly.

Anxious Attachment

Craves closeness but worries about being loved enough. Sensitive to distance and mixed signals.

Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment

Confident and independent, but uneasy with deep closeness. Tends to withdraw when things get intense.

Fearful-Avoidant Attachment

Wants closeness but fears getting hurt, creating a push-pull pattern.

How To Read Your Result

Look at where your dots sit, not just the label. Someone just past the middle on anxiety is very different from someone at the far end.

Common Pairings

  • Anxious and avoidant together is a famously challenging mix: one partner seeks closeness, the other pulls away, which increases the first partner’s anxiety. Awareness of this cycle is the first step to breaking it.
  • Secure with anyone tends to help. A secure partner can provide stability that helps others feel safer over time.

Moving Toward Security

  • Name your pattern when it shows up (“I am feeling anxious because they have not replied”).
  • Communicate needs directly instead of through hints, tests or withdrawal.
  • Choose partners who are consistent and responsive.
  • Consider therapy if old patterns feel overwhelming.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the four attachment styles?

Secure, anxious (also called preoccupied), dismissive-avoidant and fearful-avoidant (sometimes called disorganised).

Can your attachment style change?

Yes. Research shows attachment can shift over time, especially through secure relationships and therapy.

What is the most common attachment style?

Secure attachment is the most common in most studies, with the other styles making up the rest in varying proportions.

Does my childhood decide my attachment style?

Early experiences play a role, but they are not destiny. Adult relationships and personal growth also shape attachment.

Related Tests

High anxiety often goes with jealousy; try the jealousy test. To understand how you show love, take the love language test.

For self-reflection only. Not a psychological assessment or relationship counselling. See how we build our tests.