Background: Research has pointed to secure attachment as a possible key factor of resilience in adulthood.
Objective: We aimed to investigate the role of secure attachment as a potential core feature in the properties of resilience.
Methods: We conducted a systematic review in accordance with PRISMA guidelines followed by a meta-analysis.
Results: Thirty-three studies were included in the review, and 10 of these, including 2305 subjects, were used for meta-analysis. The raw correlation coefficients ranged from .20 to .57, which indicated weak to moderate correlations between resilience and attachment. The synthesized correlation coefficients indicated that the correlations were significant and highly unlikely to be due to random variation. All studies are also reported on qualitatively.
Conclusions: In both of our meta-analyses and in the narratively reported studies, we found that secure attachment is associated with the presence of resilience.
Keywords: Attachment; meta-analysis; resilience; systematic review.