Perceived Procedural Justice and Conflict Management in Intimate Relationships: The Moderating Effects of Anxious Attachment and Personal Power

Perceived procedural justice (PPJ) was recently associated with collaborative conflict management styles among married and cohabiting spouses. In a correlational study of 160 adults, we tested how avoidant and anxious attachment and personal power perceptions moderate the associations between spouse's PPJ and participants' conflict management styles, because previous research (e.g., in organizations) suggested that personal traits and status-related power moderated responsiveness to procedural justice. In our study, participants who perceived themselves as powerful were less responsive to spouse's PPJ, as was evident by its lower or insignificant correlations with their inclination for collaborative conflict management styles. Anxious attachment also moderated responsiveness to spouse's PPJ, by changing its nature; anxious participants who reported more spouse's PPJ did not reciprocate it; they were more dominating and contrary to their peers, no more compromising. Interpretations for these findings are discussed in the article.