You may have anxious attachment if you often worry about losing your partner, need frequent reassurance that you’re loved, and feel distress when they seem distant or slow to reply. This free anxious attachment test (also called an anxious attachment quiz) answers “am I anxiously attached?” with the ECR-S, a validated 12-item research questionnaire. It scores your attachment anxiety, shows how it compares with 17,000+ adults, and tells you your attachment style.
12 questions · about 3 minutes · free, no email required · based on the ECR-S (Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt & Vogel, 2007)
The assessment
12 research-backed questions. See your attachment anxiety score, how it compares with other adults, and your attachment style.
Free · no email required · about 3 minutes
Anxious attachment (also called anxious-preoccupied attachment) is an adult attachment style marked by high attachment anxiety and low avoidance: a strong desire for closeness combined with persistent worry that partners will leave or won’t care as much as you do. It is one of four adult attachment styles, alongside secure, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant. In a nationally representative US sample, about 11% of adults were classified as anxiously attached (Mickelson, Kessler & Shaver, 1997).
The six anxiety questions in this test each ask about one of these patterns. The more of them feel familiar, the higher your attachment anxiety score is likely to be.
Hearing that you're loved helps, but the relief fades fast and you find yourself needing it again.
You often suspect partners aren't as invested in the relationship as you are.
A delayed reply or a change in tone can feel like the first sign that someone is leaving.
You want more closeness than partners seem to offer, and the gap feels like rejection.
When a partner can't be there the moment you need them, frustration or panic takes over.
You've noticed that wanting to be very close sometimes makes partners pull back.
For a fuller walkthrough with examples, read 12 signs of anxious attachment.
Anxious attachment is high attachment anxiety with low avoidance. The test measures both, because high anxiety on its own can also mean fearful-avoidant attachment.
Scoring is identical to the free attachment style quiz and the Meadow app. Research: ECR-S development and validation (Wei et al., 2007).
Common signs are needing frequent reassurance, worrying that partners care less than you do, and feeling distress when someone is distant or slow to reply. A validated questionnaire like the ECR-S measures this directly: an attachment anxiety score above 4.0 with low avoidance indicates anxious attachment.
Yes. Meadow's anxious attachment test, also called an anxious attachment quiz, is free with no email required. It uses the 12-item ECR-S research questionnaire, takes about three minutes, and instantly shows your attachment style plus anxiety and avoidance percentiles.
It uses the ECR-S (Wei et al., 2007), a validated 12-item research questionnaire with strong reliability across peer-reviewed studies. Six items measure attachment anxiety. Self-report has limits, since mood and your current relationship can color answers, but it's among the most widely used adult attachment measures.
Anxiety alone can't tell anxious attachment apart from fearful-avoidant attachment. Both involve high anxiety, but fearful-avoidant people also pull away from closeness. Scoring avoidance as well lets the test tell you which pattern fits, instead of labeling everyone with high anxiety as anxious.
Anxiously attached people worry about losing closeness and move toward partners for reassurance. Fearful-avoidant people share that worry but also feel uneasy when closeness arrives, so they swing between seeking connection and withdrawing. On the ECR-S, anxious is high anxiety with low avoidance; fearful-avoidant is high on both.
On the ECR-S, attachment anxiety is scored from 1 to 7, and anything above the 4.0 midpoint counts as high. The average adult scores about 3.6, so a score of 5 puts you around the 90th percentile, higher than roughly nine in ten adults.
Yes. Attachment patterns are learned, and research shows they shift through stable relationships, therapy, and deliberate practice. Researchers call the outcome earned security. Learning to self-soothe, naming needs directly instead of through protest behavior, and consistent daily practice over weeks to months all help.
This test is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health treatment or a clinical diagnosis. If you are experiencing significant distress, suicidal thoughts, or relationship crises, please reach out to a licensed mental health professional or contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.