Attachment Style Self-Assessment (Printable)
This is the paper version: twenty-four statements, a scoring grid you fill in with a pen, and no screen involved. It exists because a result that appears instantly on a phone is very easy to accept without thinking, and because practitioners kept looking for something they could hand across a desk.
It is a self-reflection tool, not a clinical instrument, and that distinction is not a disclaimer — it changes how you should read the result. The validated research measures are the Experiences in Close Relationships scales and the Adult Attachment Interview; the first is a long questionnaire scored on two continuous dimensions, the second is a coded interview that takes hours. Neither produces a four-word label. Everything below is an approximation designed to start a conversation.
Who this worksheet is for
You want to work this out on paper rather than on a screen, or you are a practitioner who wants something printable to go through with a client.
Download the free PDF ↓Free, printable, no email required. Prints on A4 or Letter.
How to score it honestly
Answer for how you have actually been across your last two or three significant relationships — not for how you are right now with one particular person, and not for how you would like to be. The most common distortion is answering as your best self in your calmest relationship, which returns secure for almost everybody.
Score each statement 0 to 4, where 0 is never true of me and 4 is almost always true. Add the six statements in each block. The blocks are anxiety, avoidance, disorganisation and security, and the highest total is the pattern that fits you most closely today.
Two totals within three points of each other is a genuine result, not a failure of the instrument. Attachment is dimensional, and mixed profiles are the norm rather than the exception. If anxiety and avoidance are both high, read the fearful-avoidant material.
Your result can change with the relationship you are in, and that is not a flaw in the questions. Attachment behaviour is relational: the same person can look anxious with an inconsistent partner and close to secure with a steady one. Re-score in six months and the movement will be informative.
The four blocks
Six statements per block, scored 0–4. The PDF has the full statement list, the scoring grid, and the interpretation page.
Block A: Anxiety
How much of your attention the relationship takes when nothing is wrong.
These six ask about vigilance rather than about love. The construct is not how much you care — it is how much monitoring the caring requires: re-reading messages for tone, tracking response times, needing reassurance repeated because the last one has stopped working. A high score here is compatible with a very good relationship; what it measures is the cost of holding it, not its quality.
Prompts
- ●I re-read messages from a partner looking for changes in tone. (0–4)
- ●When a reply is slower than usual, I struggle to concentrate on anything else. (0–4)
- ●I need reassurance more often than I am comfortable admitting. (0–4)
- ●Block A total (six statements on the PDF), out of 24:
Block B: Avoidance
What happens as closeness increases.
The key word in every statement here is "as". Avoidance is not a dislike of relationships — it is a response that scales with proximity, which is why it so often appears three months in rather than at the start. These items ask about the direction of travel: whether interest reduces as access increases, whether you find reasons at the point things get settled, whether relief is a common feeling when plans fall through.
Prompts
- ●I feel relief, not disappointment, when plans with a partner get cancelled. (0–4)
- ●I start noticing faults in a partner as we get closer. (0–4)
- ●I would rather handle something difficult alone than be helped with it. (0–4)
- ●Block B total, out of 24:
Block C: Disorganisation
Whether the two above take turns.
This block is not a third flavour of insecurity; it asks specifically about oscillation and about the conflict between the two systems. The distinguishing experience is wanting closeness intensely and finding it unbearable once you have it. The distinguishing behaviour is reversal — sending something and immediately wishing it unsent, ending something and immediately wanting it back. If Block C is high, read it alongside A and B rather than instead of them.
Prompts
- ●I want closeness badly and then feel trapped once I have it. (0–4)
- ●I have ended, or nearly ended, relationships I did not want to end. (0–4)
- ●My feelings about the same person can reverse within a day. (0–4)
- ●Block C total, out of 24:
Block D: Security
Scored separately, because it is not simply low insecurity.
Security is its own set of behaviours rather than the absence of the other three, which is why it gets its own block. The items are about what happens under stress: whether you can say what you need without building a case first, whether conflict ends in repair rather than in a winner, whether an ordinary answer is enough to settle you. Someone can score moderately on A or B and still score high here — that combination is roughly what earned security looks like from the inside.
Prompts
- ●I can say what I need directly, without building a case first. (0–4)
- ●After an argument we repair, rather than one of us conceding. (0–4)
- ●An ordinary reassurance is usually enough to settle me. (0–4)
- ●Block D total, out of 24:
Reading your result
What the number is, and is not, evidence of.
The highest block is the pattern that currently fits you best. It is not a diagnosis — attachment style does not appear in the DSM-5 or ICD-11, and no label from a printed sheet should be treated as a finding about your character. Two things make the score more useful: writing down one specific incident that made you answer 4 on your highest-scoring item, and re-scoring in six months. An unexplained label predicts nothing; a label plus a dated incident is something you can work on.
Prompts
- ●Highest block and score:
- ●Second highest, and the gap between them:
- ●One dated incident behind my highest single item:
- ●Date I will score this again:
For practitioners
This is free to print and use with clients, and it is deliberately not a validated instrument — where a measure is needed, the ECR-R or the AAI are the appropriate tools and this substitutes for neither. Its usefulness is as a conversation opener: the scoring is transparent enough that a client can see exactly which answers produced the result, which tends to move the discussion onto incidents rather than onto the label.
The scoring grid is on the last page and is designed to be photocopied on its own, so you can re-administer it later without reprinting the statements.
Prefer to do it on screen?
The online version asks different questions, scores them for you, and takes about five minutes.
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Worksheets for the other styles
- Anxious Attachment worksheet — You re-read messages looking for tone changes, feel panic when replies slow down, or find yourself doing things to get reassurance that you later wish you had not done.
- Avoidant Attachment worksheet — You need space when things get close, go quiet under conflict, find faults in partners as intimacy grows, or feel relief when plans get cancelled.
- Fearful-Avoidant Attachment worksheet — You crave closeness then feel trapped by it, end relationships you wanted, or feel like two different people depending on the week.
- Secure Attachment worksheet — You came out secure and want to know what to keep doing, or you are building earned security and want the target described in behaviour rather than adjectives.
Worksheets by situation
- The 8-week anxious attachment healing plan — You already know you have an anxious pattern, you have read the explanations, and what you are missing is an order of operations you can actually follow.
- Attachment triggers worksheet — You keep having the same fight, or you react strongly to things that seem small afterwards and want to know what specifically is firing.
- Attachment journal prompts — You want to write about your patterns but either end up spiralling or end up staring at a blank page wondering what you are supposed to say.
- Couples attachment worksheet — You are having the same argument repeatedly, in the same shape, and both of you can predict it from the first two sentences.
- Attachment styles handout for therapists — You are a therapist, counsellor, coach or student who wants a printable attachment handout for clients, or a client who would like the plain-language version to read between sessions.
- Healing avoidant attachment (8-week workbook) — You have read the explanations of avoidant attachment, recognised yourself, and still have no idea what to actually do on a Tuesday evening when your partner wants to talk.
- Healing fearful-avoidant attachment (workbook) — You want closeness intensely and then find it unbearable, sometimes within the same day, and you have stopped trusting your own read on what you want.
- One-page attachment styles comparison chart — You keep re-reading four separate descriptions and losing track of which one you were comparing, or you want something a partner will actually look at.
- Deactivation plan (what to do while it is happening) — You shut down and cannot talk when it matters most, or you are living with someone who does and the silence is doing more damage than the argument did.
- No contact plan (a structured 30 days) — You have decided on a period of no contact and keep breaking it in small ways you then have to argue yourself out of feeling bad about.
- Breakup recovery plan (30 days, by pattern) — The relationship has ended and you are going over it constantly, or not going over it at all in a way that is starting to worry you.
- Pursue-withdraw cycle breaker — One of you chases the conversation and one of you needs it to stop, and you have both explained this to each other many times without anything changing.
- Early dating worksheet (first 90 days) — You keep ending up in the same kind of situation and would like to notice it happening this time, rather than in hindsight.
- Boundaries worksheet (setting and holding them) — You have read about boundaries, agreed with all of it, and still cannot work out what to actually say on Thursday evening.
- Conflict repair worksheet (after an argument) — You resolve arguments by waiting until they stop mattering, and you have noticed the list of subjects you both avoid getting longer.
- Self-soothing plan (written before you need it) — You know what you are supposed to do when the panic arrives and you have never once done it in the moment.
- Family of origin timeline worksheet — You recognise your pattern and want to understand where it came from without turning it into a case against your parents.
- Weekly practice tracker (photocopy and reuse) — You have done the reading and some of the exercises and have no idea whether any of it is working.
- Setback plan (for the bad week after a good month) — You have made real progress before and lost it, and the losing is what stops you starting again.
- Between-session therapy homework sheets — Therapists and counsellors who want structured attachment homework, and clients who want to bring something concrete to the next session.
- Printable conversation cards (cut out and use) — You want to talk about how you each handle closeness and every attempt to start it has felt like opening a case.
- Needs inventory and non-negotiables — You know something is missing and everything you come up with sounds either too small to mention or too much to ask.
- Attachment at work worksheet — A short message from your manager can take your whole afternoon, or you handle everything alone until it is too late to ask.
- Parenting worksheet (your pattern, their security) — You have recognised your own attachment pattern and would rather not hand it on, and you are not sure which of your reactions are about them.
- Texting worksheet (the waiting, not their replies) — A delayed reply can take your evening, or you leave people waiting for days and have never really looked at why.
- Monthly relationship check-in (a repeatable ritual) — Things are broadly fine and you would like them to stay that way, or you have noticed that everything gets raised at once during arguments.
- Friendship worksheet (the non-romantic version) — Your friendships keep fading without anything happening, or you are always the one who arranges things and have started to resent it.
Or go back to all free attachment worksheets, including the one-page cheat sheet covering all four styles.
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